CHAP. V. LIONS. 227 



and was not much surprised when the wet vskin of 

 a lion was thrown down at my feet, and all the hunters 

 and camp boys, having turned out in obedience to 

 their officer's orders, formed a semicircle in front of 

 me, and commenced to dance and sing the great hunting- 

 song, only used on occasions such as these. I knew 

 what was expected of me, having seen many lions 

 killed; so, after allowing them to dance — i.e. to empha- 

 size the measure by stamping in unison with their 

 feet, and marking time by the motions of their arms 

 — for several minutes, I sent my boy for my gun, and, 

 holding the barrels perpendicularly for the sake of the 

 general safety, I fired them both off. This was at once 

 taken up by the hunters, who had all brought their guns 

 out in readiness, and who fired one after another, in 

 capital time, until the last shot was spent. 



When I thought there had been enough of it, I asked 

 who had been the successful man, and a fine, tall grey- 

 bearded old hunter came forward. " You, Atozake ! " 

 I said, in some surprise; for he had but lately joined 

 me, and, from an incident that had just occurred, I had 

 fancied him rather the reverse of plucky. 



He and a comparatively young hunter had very 

 severely wounded a solitary bufialo bull, and it had taken 

 refuge in a patch of thorn-thicket so dense that nothing 

 Gould be seen a yard distant in it, and there, though 

 within a few yards of the animal, and hearing it coughing, 

 as only a buffalo shot through the lungs will cough, they 

 had left it, and returned to receive the openly-expressed 

 jeers of their companions. 



" Yes, sir, me. Now that the old man who was afraid 



