318 HUNTING ADVENTURES. 



Lions are ever most active, daring, and presuming in dark and 

 stormy nights, and consequently, on such occasions, the traveller 

 ought more particularly to be on his guard. I remarked a fact 

 connected with the lions' hour of drinking peculiar to themselves : 

 they seemed unwilling to visit the fountains with good moonlight. 

 Thus, when the moon rose early, the lions deferred their hour of 

 watering until late in the morning ; and when the moon rose late, 

 they drank at a very early hour, in the night. By this acute 

 system many a grisly lion saved his bacon, and is now* luxuriating 

 in the forest of South Africa, which had otherwise fallen by the 

 barrels of my " Westley Richards." Owing to the tawny color 

 of the coat with which nature has robed him, he *s perfectly 

 invisible in the dark ; and although I have often heard them 

 loudly lapping the water under my very nose, not twenty yards 

 from me, I could not possibly make out so much as the outline of 

 their forms. When a thirsty lion comes to water, he stretches out 

 his massive arms, lies down on his breast to drink, and makes a 

 loud lapping noise in drinking not to be mistaken. He continues 

 lapping up the water for a long whife, and four or five times 

 during the proceeding he pauses for half a minute as if to take 

 breath. One thing conspicuous about them is their eyes, which, 

 m a dark night, glow like two balls of fire. The female is more 

 fierce and active than the male, as a general rule. Lionesses 

 which have never had young are much more dangerous than those 

 which have. At no time is the lion so much to be dreaded as 

 when his partner has got small young ones. At that season he 

 knows no fear, and, in the coolest and most intrepid manner, he 

 will face a thousand men. A remarkable instance of this kind 

 came under my own observation, which confirmed the reports 1 

 had before heard from the natives. One day, when out elephant 

 hunting in the territory of the " Baseieka," accompanied by two 

 hundred and fifty men, I was astonished suddenly to behold a 

 majestic lion slowly and steadily advancing toward us with a 

 dignified step and undaunted bearing, the most noble and imposing 

 that can be conceived. Lashing his tail from side to side, and 

 growling haughtily, his terribly expressive eye resolutely fixed 



