THE LION. 109 



of unguarded security, they lodge a poisoned arrow 

 in his breast. The moment the lion is thus struck, 

 he springs from his lair, and bounds off as helpless 

 as the stricken deer. The work is done. The ar- 

 row of death has pierced his heart, without even 

 breaking the slumbers of the lioness which may 

 have been lying beside him ; and the bushman knows 

 where, in the course of a few hours, or even less 

 time, he will find him dead, or in the agonies of 

 death." 



Such is lion-hunting in Africa. When practised 

 in India, it is attended with every concomitant of 

 eastern pomp and show ; but as a clever sketcher ob- 

 serves, " from the zeal of English sportsmen, and the 

 price put upon each victim by Government, the 

 royal race of the forest, like other Indian dynasties, 

 is either totally extinct, or it has been driven far 

 back into the deserts." " By crack sportsmen," 

 Captain Mundy continues, " the lion is reputed to 

 afford better sport than the tiger ; his attack is more 

 open and certain, and the country which he haunts 

 is less favourable for a retreat, than the thick swampy 

 morasses frequented by the tiger."* Another In- 

 dian sportsman-)- tells us, that the lion, though not 

 so swift as the tiger, is generally stronger and 

 more courageous. Those which have been killed in 

 India, instead of running away when pursued through 

 a jungle, seldom think its cover necessary at all. 

 When they see their enemies approaching, they 



* Mtmdy's Sketches, i. 



+ Mr Boulderson, Heber's Journal, i. 463. 



