284 LARGE GAME. chap. v. 



one always keeping guard while the other two went to 

 water, roaring all the way there and all the way back. 

 This habit of keeping guard over their food they have 

 been forced to acquire from the depredations of vultures, 

 hyenas, and jackals, which, if not prevented, would pick 

 the bones clean in a few minutes. 



Sometimes a Hon when prowling about will come 

 across a man, perhaps strayed, or watching a water-hole, 

 and in such cases will very likely kill him and leave him 

 where he found him, not eating the body. I know a 

 Dutch hunter, a very powerful man, who was once sleep- 

 ing out near the Nkwavuma. He had been imsuccessfiilly 

 piu-suing game aU day, and had made no camp-fence, or 

 other protection, as he had got no meat with him. Dur- 

 ing the night he was awoke by something catching hold 

 of his arm, and thinking that it was a hyena, he made a 

 tremendous effort to free himself, striking out at it with 

 the disengaged arm. The blow was such that if it did not 

 knock the animal down, it at any rate drove it back, and 

 enabled him to snatch up his rifle and fire. The Hon, as 

 to his astonishment it turned out to be, jumped away 

 roaring, and next morning was found dead a few yards off. 



Much has been written about their roar, and I must 

 confess to having been disappointed in it at first; but 

 after a time I discovered that, though it had no resem- 

 blance to thunder or anything of that sort, it really was 

 a very awe-inspiring sound. It commences by a low 

 booming growl, repeated two or three times, and increasing 

 in loudness until it becomes a roar that fills the air, and 

 then dies away again in a low muttering. Lions coming 

 from diflferent directions will often keep it up for half an 



