The Man-Eaters of Tsavo | Page 7

time workmen
and supplies came pouring in, and the noise of hammers and sledges,
drilling and blasting echoed merrily through the district.
CHAPTER II
THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE MAN-EATERS

Unfortunately this happy state of affairs did not continue for long, and
our work was soon interrupted in a rude and startling manner. Two
most voracious and insatiable man-eating lions appeared upon the
scene, and for over nine months waged an intermittent warfare against
the railway and all those connected with it in the vicinity of Tsavo. This
culminated in a perfect reign of terror in December, 1898, when they
actually succeeded in bringing the railway works to a complete
standstill for about three weeks. At first they were not always
successful in their efforts to carry off a victim, but as time went on they
stopped at nothing and indeed braved any danger in order to obtain
their favourite food. Their methods then became so uncanny, and their
man-stalking so well-timed and so certain of success, that the workmen
firmly believed that they were not real animals at all, but devils in lions'
shape. Many a time the coolies solemnly assured me that it was
absolutely useless to attempt to shoot them. They were quite convinced
that the angry spirits of two departed native chiefs had taken this form
in order to protest against a railway being made through their country,
and by stopping its progress to avenge the insult thus shown to them.
I had only been a few days at Tsavo when I first heard that these brutes
had been seen in the neighbourhood. Shortly afterwards one or two
coolies mysteriously disappeared, and I was told that they had been
carried off by night from their tents and devoured by lions. At the time
I did not credit this story, and was more inclined to believe that the
unfortunate men had been the victims of foul play at the hands of some
of their comrades. They were, as it happened, very good workmen, and
had each saved a fair number of rupees, so I thought it quite likely that
some scoundrels from the gangs had murdered them for the sake of
their money. This suspicion, however, was very soon dispelled. About
three weeks after my arrival, I was roused one morning about daybreak
and told that one of my jemadars, a fine powerful Sikh named Ungan
Singh, had been seized in his tent during the night, and dragged off and
eaten.
Naturally I lost no time in making an examination of the place, and was
soon convinced that the man had indeed been carried off by a lion, as

its "pug" marks were plainly visible in the sand, while the furrows
made by the heels of the victim showed the direction in which he had
been dragged away. Moreover, the jemadar shared his tent with half a
dozen other workmen, and one of his bedfellows had actually witnessed
the occurrence. He graphically described how, at about midnight, the
lion suddenly put its head in at the open tent door and seized Ungan
Singh -- who happened to be nearest the opening -- by the throat. The
unfortunate fellow cried out "Choro" ("Let go"), and threw his arms up
round the lion's neck. The next moment he was gone, and his
panic-stricken companions lay helpless, forced to listen to the terrible
struggle which took place outside. Poor Ungan Singh must have died
hard; but what chance had he? As a coolie gravely remarked, "Was he
not fighting with a lion?"
On hearing this dreadful story I at once set out to try to track the animal,
and was accompanied by Captain Haslem, who happened to be staying
at Tsavo at the time, and who, poor fellow, himself met with a tragic
fate very shortly afterwards. We found it an easy matter to follow the
route taken by the lion, as he appeared to have stopped several times
before beginning his meal. Pools of blood marked these halting-places,
where he doubtless indulged in the man-eaters' habit of licking the skin
off so as to get at the fresh blood. (I have been led to believe that this is
their custom from the appearance of two half-eaten bodies which I
subsequently rescued: the skin was gone in places, and the flesh looked
dry, as if it had been sucked.) On reaching the spot where the body had
been devoured, a dreadful spectacle presented itself. The ground all
round was covered with blood and morsels of flesh and bones, but the
unfortunate jemadar's head had been left intact, save for the holes made
by the lion's tusks on seizing him, and lay a short distance away from
the other remains, the eyes staring wide open with a startled, horrified
look in them. The