Evening star., 1923-10-21

ore. then he gets fire from two sticks,
and then charcoal. Then he makes a
retort of clay in which he smelts the
iron ore. With hunk of granite for
an anvil and another for a hammer
he rough forges the spear With soft
, iron hammers forged in similar way
he finishes the spear which is finally
sharpened on native stones. With
this equipment he starts out to kill
the lion that has been preying on his
fiocks or herds.
He takes a great pride in the
achievement, for he will make from
the name a headdress which his ex-
ploit entities him to wear. OF course.
this does not happen just this way
now, but the Nandi spearmen spear
ed lions with the arms they made
before the white men came. II is a
fair contest between man and beast.
And the courage and skill of these
men are wonderful.
~ "
DAUL RAINEY had a ranch on the
west shore of Lake Naivasha One
morning his boys reported TO him
that a lion had invaded the kraal the
night before. He set out on horse
back with a few of his dogs and two
The dogs soon took up the spoor of
the lion and brought him to bay
under an acacia tree on the grassy
plain. The sun had just risen above
the hills on the other side of the
lake. The long shadows Of the table
top acacius lay across the plain, the
lion underneath in full sunlight.
Rainey Jumped off his horse, threw
the reins over a bush, and grabbed
his rifle from Its boot.
He then saw the two Masia boys
run on toward the lion. AS they ap-
preached the lion one threw his spear
and missed. They were between him
and the lion. and he could not shoot.
The boys stood stock still until the
lion was in midair in his final spring,
when the one with the spear step
ped to one side and thrust his spear
into the lions neck, killing him in
stantly. He fell at their feet. AS the
boy Withdrew the spear and carefully
wiped the blood off on the corner of
his breechcloth he remarked to
Rainey:
you see, master. 1t is work for a
child"
That is how the Nasal figured It.
But 1 never have felt SO. The first
wild lion l ever saw scared me almost
to death, and a good many of them
have scared me since.
The first lions that I saw were In
Somaliland. An oryx hunt had just
come to a close. We were about to
mount our ponies when one of the
black boys pointed. There were
three lions walking quietly across a
patch of hard, dry sand. They were
perhaps hundred yards away. They
looked as big as oxen to me. / had
never before seen a lion outside of
a cage. We turned our ponies over
to the Somali gun boys, who galloped
after them to round them up. My
next view of the lions was when the
beaters had gone in to drive them
out of bit of jungle.
A roar came from Immediately in
front of me and 1 saw a lioness in
midair as high as my head springing,
thank heaven, diagonally away from
me. But she saw me as she sprang
and landed facing me. AS i fred, a
lion jumped over her back, which so
disconnected me that my shot only
wounded her. This lion disconnected
her. too, for she followed him. Two
more shots at her and she disap-
peared in another clump OF cover with
the lions.
In our efforts to drive them out of
this cover we finally set 1t on fire.
The two lions rushed out and es-
capped US. The lioness. more seri-
ously wounded than l thought. never
came. | had failed to get lion, but