The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, and Other East African AdventuresPatterson, J. H. (John Henry)
History
The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, and Other East African Adventures
Patterson, J. H. (John Henry)
Africa, East -- Description and travel; Hunting -- Africa, East; Uganda Railway
The wildebeeste, in fact, is like Kipling's Fuzzy-Wuzzy--"'e's
generally shammin' when 'e's dead"; and my friend Rawson about this
time had an experience very similar to mine, but attended with more
serious results. He had knocked his wildebeeste over in much the same
way, and thought it was dead; and as he was very keen on obtaining
photographs of game, he took his stand-camera from the Indian who
carried it and proceeded to focus it on the animal's head. When he was
just about to take the picture, he was thunderstruck to see the
wildebeeste jump up and come charging down upon him. He sprang quickly
aside, and in an instant up went the camera into the air, followed the
next moment by the unfortunate Indian, the wildebeeste having stuck its
horn right through the man's thigh and tossed him over its back.
Fortunately the brute fell dead after this final effort, leaving Rawson
grateful for his escape.
After abandoning the chase of my wildebeeste, we had not gone far on
our way towards the home camp when I thought I observed something of a
reddish colour moving in a patch of long grass, a good distance to our
left front. I asked Mahina if he could make out what it was, but he was
unable to do so, and before I could get my field-glasses to bear, the
animal, whatever it was, had disappeared into the grass. I kept my eye
on the spot, however, and we gradually approached it. When we were
about a hundred yards off, the reddish object again appeared; and I saw
that it was nothing less than the shaggy head of a lion peeping over
the long grass. This time Mahina also saw what it was, and called out,
"Dekko, Sahib, sher!" ("Look, Master, a lion!"). I whispered to him to
be quiet and to take no notice of him, while I tried my best to follow
my own advice. So we kept on, edging up towards the beast, but
apparently oblivious of his presence, as he lay there grimly watching
us. As we drew nearer, I asked Mahina in a whisper if he felt equal to
facing a charge from the sher if I should wound him. He answered simply
that where I went, there would he go also; and right well he kept his
word.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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