Ill ALAS! POOR PONTO 47 



brute, waiting for another flash of lightning. This 

 was not long delayed, and showed the lion still lying 

 flat on the ground close in front of the waggon. 

 Cross fired at once. Encouraged by the report of 

 the rifle, poor Ponto rushed boldly forward, past 

 the terrified ox, into the black night, barking loudly. 

 A yelp of fright or pain suddenly succeeded the 

 bold barking of the dog, and poor Ponto's voice was 

 stilled for ever. He had rushed right into the lion's 

 jaws, and had been instantly killed and carried off 

 Fires were then made up again, but the lion, 

 apparently satisfied with a somewhat light repast, 

 did not give any further trouble. On the following 

 morning Cross could find no part of Ponto but the 

 head. All the rest of him had apparently been 

 eaten. 



I remember even to-day, and with perfect 

 distinctness, though I have not seen it for many 

 years, a certain picture in Gordon Cumming's well- 

 known book on African hunting, and the fearful 

 fascination it always had for me when I was a small 

 boy. That picture represented a great gaunt lion 

 in the act of seizing one of the hunter's Hottentot 

 servants — poor Hendrik — as he lay asleep by the 

 camp fire ; but it left to the imagination all the 

 horror and agony of mind suffered by the poor 

 wretch, when so rudely awakened at dead of night 

 and swiftly dragged away into the darkness to a cruel 

 death, in spite of the gallant attempts of his 

 comrades to save him. 



During the sixty odd years that have elapsed since 

 this tragedy was enacted on the banks of the 

 Limpopo, many a similar incident has taken place. 

 Some of these occurrences have come within the 

 knowledge of, and been described by, European 

 travellers and hunters, yet these have been but 

 isolated cases, and can only represent a very small 

 percentage of the number of nativ^es that have been 



