skerm

The ground round our little camp was hard and rocky, and we could not hit off any spoor of the lioness, though just outside the skerm was a drop or two of blood.

The Tale of Three Lions Henry Rider Haggard 1890

As it was, Harry was run over, and poor Jim-Jim being caught by the trektow somewhere beneath the arm, was hurled right across the skerm, landing by my side only some paces off.

The Tale of Three Lions Henry Rider Haggard 1890

The first thing that we did was to strengthen the bush wall of the skerm by dragging a large quantity of the tops of thorn-trees together, and laying them one on the other in such a fashion that the thorns pointed outwards.

The Tale of Three Lions Henry Rider Haggard 1890

At any rate they came, and quickly too, for within five minutes, peeping through the bushes of our skerm fence, we saw a magnificent lion bounding along towards us, through the tall tambouki grass, that in the moonlight looked for all the world like ripening corn.

The Tale of Three Lions Henry Rider Haggard 1890

No Roman lady, with her baths of porphyry or alabaster, could have had a more delicious spot to bathe herself than we found within fifty yards of our skerm, or rough inclosure of mimosa thorn, that we had dragged together round the cart to protect us from the attacks of lions.

The Tale of Three Lions Henry Rider Haggard 1890

Pharaoh that he should go and sit outside the skerm in the moonlight as

The Tale of Three Lions Henry Rider Haggard 1890

a sound more like a cough than a roar within about twenty yards of the skerm.

The Tale of Three Lions Henry Rider Haggard 1890

"Now, about thirty yards to the left of our skerm, as one stood facing down the hill towards the river, was the stump of a tree that had been destroyed by lightning many years before, standing equidistant between, but a little in front of, two clumps of bush, which were severally some fifteen paces from it.

The Tale of Three Lions Henry Rider Haggard 1890

"'The lion! the lion!' holloaed Pharaoh, and as he did so, he, or rather she, for it was a great gaunt lioness, half wild no doubt with hunger, lit right in the middle of the skerm, and stood there in the smoky gloom lashing her tail and roaring.

The Tale of Three Lions Henry Rider Haggard 1890

"So with scared and heavy hearts we crept back to the skerm, and sat down to wait for the dawn, which now could not be much more than an hour off.

The Tale of Three Lions Henry Rider Haggard 1890