A WOUNDED LIONESS. 149 
accurately with this rifle, and proceeded to have the bushes 
driven; but I found it very difficult to dislodge the lioness. 
She would appear every now and then in some opening, 
and the next second would spring back again in the bushes. 
On one of these occasions I gave her another shot in the 
same shoulder that I had broken the night before. Finally 
a boy called to me that he could see the lioness lying in the 
bushes very near me. I went over to him, and sure enough, 
there was the beast, very near indeed, — only ten yards 
away, with her head flattened against the ground, snarling 
and looking straight at us. But the next instant almost 
my rifle rang out her death note, and the lioness simply 
stretched out her legs, without ever feeling the ball that 
had hit her, as I had struck her in the back of the neck. 
Nothing more was seen of the lions, but I returned to 
breakfast in a very happy frame of mind, having bagged 
my lioness, and having been a witness to a most interest- 
ing and splendid battle. Natives had told me that hyenas 
frequently attack lions in packs, and that they often 
get the better of the kings of the forest; and now I had 
been given an opportunity of satisfying myself on this 
point, as the lions were certainly getting the worst of it 
up to the time I fired at the lioness. 
As the camels were showing the effects of the long jour- 
ney from Bari, — five of them having died, — I remained 
two days at this spot, which the Dagodi called Bargheilo, 
to give them a little rest. There were several villages here, 
but all I could buy from the natives was twelve sheep, and 
some chicken eggs, which were always a great luxury to 
Dodson and myself. 
The temperature averaged 95° during the whole time 
the sun was up, and did not fall below 88° at night, while 
strong winds that came from the south struck one like 
blasts from a hot furnace. We continued our journey 
