We
At Once Decided To Move The Hospital Closer To
The Main Camp; A Fresh Site Was Prepared, A
Stout Hedge Built Round The Enclosure, And All
The Patients Were Moved In Before Nightfall.
As I had heard that lions generally visit
recently deserted camps, I decided to sit up all
night in
The vacated boma in the hope of getting
an opportunity of bagging one of them; but in
the middle of my lonely vigil I had the
mortification of hearing shrieks and cries coming from the
direction of the new hospital, telling me only
too plainly that our dreaded foes had once more
eluded me. Hurrying to the place at daylight I
found that one of the lions had jumped over the
newly erected fence and had carried off the
hospital bhisti (water-carrier), and that several
other coolies had been unwilling witnesses of
the terrible scene which took place within the
circle of light given by the big camp fire. The
bhisti, it appears, had been lying on the floor,
with his head towards the centre of the tent and
his feet neatly touching the side. The lion
managed to get its head in below the canvas,
seized him by the foot and pulled him out. In
desperation the unfortunate water-carrier clutched
hold of a heavy box in a vain attempt to prevent
himself being carried off, and dragged it with
him until he was forced to let go by its being
stopped by the side of the tent. He then caught
hold of a tent rope, and clung tightly to it until
it broke. As soon as the lion managed to get
him clear of the tent, he sprang at his throat and
after a few vicious shakes the poor bhisti's
agonising cries were silenced for ever. The
brute then seized him in his mouth, like a huge
cat with a mouse, and ran up and down the
boma looking for a weak spot to break through.
This he presently found and plunged into,
dragging his victim with him and leaving shreds
of torn cloth and flesh as ghastly evidences of
his passage through the thorns. Dr. Brock and
I were easily able to follow his track, and soon
found the remains about four hundred yards away
in the bush. There was the usual horrible sight.
Very little was left of the unfortunate bhisti - only
the skull, the jaws, a few of the larger bones and
a portion of the palm with one or two fingers
attached. On one of these was a silver ring,
and this, with the teeth (a relic much prized by
certain castes), was sent to the man's widow
in India.
Again it was decided to move the hospital;
and again, before nightfall, the work was
completed, including a still stronger and thicker boma.
When the patients had been moved, I had a
covered goods-wagon placed in a favourable
position on a siding which ran close to the site
which had just been abandoned, and in this Brock
and I arranged to sit up that night.
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