THE LION. 53 



the door, but my astonishment may well be conceived when 

 I found the entrance to it barred in such a way. Although 

 the animal had not seen me, unarmed as I was escape 

 seemed impossible, yet I glided gently, scarcely knowing what 

 I meant to do, to the side of the house, up to the window 

 of my chamber, where I knew my loaded gun was standing. 

 By a most happy chance, I had set it into the corner close 

 by the window, so that I could reach it with my hand; for, 

 as you may perceive, the opening is too small to admit of 

 my having got in, and still more fortunately, the door of the 

 room was open, so that I could see the whole danger of 

 the scene. The lion was beginning to move. There was 

 no longer any time to think; I called softly to the mother 

 not to be alarmed, and invoking the name of the Lord, 

 fired my piece. The ball passed directly over the hair of 

 my boy's head and lodged in the forehead of the lion, 

 immediately above his eyes and stretched him on the ground, 

 so that he never stirred more." "Indeed," says Professor 

 Lichtenstein, " we all shuddered as we listened to this relation. 

 Never, as he himself observed, was a more daring attempt 

 hazarded. Had he failed in his aim, mother and children 

 were all inevitably lost; if the boy had moved he had been 

 struck; the least turn in the lion and the shot had not been 

 mortal to him ; and to consummate the whole, the head of the 

 creature was in some sort protected by the door-post." 

 Attacked by In Phillips's "Researches in South Africa," the 

 a Lion, following account is given of the adventures of 

 a traveller which we quote from Jardine's Naturalists' Library 

 collated with other versions. "Our waggons, which were 

 obliged to take a circuitous route, arrived at last, and we 

 pitched our tent a musket-shot from the kraal, and, after 

 having arranged everything, went to rest, but were soon 

 disturbed; for, about midnight the cattle and horses, which 

 were standing between the waggons, began to start and 

 run, and one of the drivers to shout, on which every one 



