230 THE LION AND OTHER BEASTS OF PREY 



He leaps towards one so quickly, and apparently so surely, that 

 the looker-on shudders for the Hottentot, expecting to see him torn to 

 pieces in an instant. But, instead of this, the Hottentot leaps out in 

 the twinkling of an eye, and the beast spends his rage on the ground. 

 He turns, and leaps towards another, and another, and another, but 

 still in vain; he is avoided with the quickness of thought, and he fights 

 only with the air. All this time the arrows and spears shower on him 

 in the rear. He grows mad with pain; and leaping from one party to 

 another of his foes, and tumbling from time to time on the ground, to 

 break the arrows and spears that are fastened in him, he foams, yells, 

 and roars most terribly. **If the beast is not quickly slain," says 

 Kolben, "he is quickly convinced there is no dealing with so nimble 

 an enemy ; and then he makes off with all his heels, and having by this 

 lime a multitude, perhaps, of poisoned arrows and spears in his back, 

 the Hottentots let him go freely and follow him at a little distance. 

 The poison quickly seizes him, and he runs not far before he falls." 



A Hottentot was out hunting, and perceiving an antelope feeding 

 among some bushes, he approached in a creeping posture, and had 

 rested his gun over an ant-hill to take a steady aim, when, observing 

 that the creature's attention was suddenly and peculiarly excited by 

 some object near him, he looked up and perceived with horror that a 

 large lion was at that instant creeping forward and ready to spring 

 on himself. Before he could change his posture, and direct his aim at 

 this antagonist, the lion bounded forward, seized him with his talons, 

 and crushed his left hand, as he endeavored to ward him off with it, 

 between his savage jaws. In this extremity, the Hottentot had the 

 presence of mind to turn the muzzle of his gun, which he still held in 

 his right hand, into the lion's mouth, and then drawing the trigger, 

 shot him dead through the brain. He lost his hand, but happily 

 escaped any further injury. 



A Boor, named Lucas, was riding across the open plains, near the 

 Little Fish River, one morning, about daybreak, and, observing a lion 

 at a distance, he endeavored to avoid him by making a wide circuit. 

 There were thousands of spring-bucks scattered over the extensive 

 flats ; but the lion, from the open nature of the country, had probably 

 been unsuccessful in hunting. 



