56 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



rose to drive in the ox, the lion had watched him to his 

 fireside, and he had scarcely lain down, when the brute sprang 

 upon him and Ruyter (for both lay under one blanket) with 

 his appalling murderous roar, and roaring as he lay, grappled 

 him with his fearful claws and kept biting him on the breast 

 and shoulder, all the while feeling for his neck; having got 

 hold of which, he at once dragged him away backwards 

 round the bush into the dense shade .... The next morning, 

 just as the day began to dawn we heard the lion dragging 

 something up the river side under cover of the bank. We 

 drove the cattle out of the kraal and then proceeded to 

 inspect the scene of the night's awful tragedy. In the hollow 

 where the lion had lain, consuming his prey, we found one 

 leg of the unfortunate Hendrick, bitten off below the knee, 

 the shoe still on the foot, the grass and bushes were all 

 stained with his blood, and fragments of his pea-coat lay 

 around. Hendrick was by far the best man I had about 

 my waggons ... his loss to us all was very serious." 



A liion In the southern part of Africa, where the Hot- 

 Outwitted, tentots live, lions were very common, and the 

 adventures of the inhabitants with them very frequent. 

 One evening a Hottentot saw that he was pursued by a lion. 

 He was very much alarmed, and devised the following means 

 of escape. He went to the edge of a precipice, and placed 

 himself a little below it. He then put his cloak and hat on 

 a stick, and elevated them over his head, giving them a 

 gentle motion. The lion came crouching along, and, mistaking 

 the cloak and hat for the man, as the Hottentot intended 

 he should do, he sprang upon them with a swift leap, and, 

 passing over the head of the Hottentot, was plunged head- 

 long down the precipice. 

 Old instincts ^ n tne "Miscellany of Natural History," from 



and new which several of these anecdotes are taken there 

 Opportunities. ^ & gtory illustrating the way in which old 



instincts will show themselves hi the presence of new 



