66 HUNTING IN THE JUNGLE. 



choking which left him without strength or motion on his 

 bed of pain. The natives advised me to get rid of him at 

 once, several even offering themselves to kill him for me ; 

 but I declined. He was too human in his sufferings. In 

 spite of his weakness, he had kept in the highest degree 

 his instinct of self-preservation ; and at the slightest move- 

 ment near him his eye would suddenly flash again, as it 

 used when any one approached him. He seemed, curi- 

 ously enough, to fear the blacks much more than me. 

 I surrounded him with every care and attention I could 

 think of, convinced that if he recovered he would never 

 resume toward me his natural ferocity. But it was of 

 no use ; he sank hour by hour, and on the ninth day his 

 death-agony began. I shall never forget the painful last 

 half-hour. Poor Joseph, his head on my knees, trem- 

 bling with cold, although the temperature was eighty, 

 began to show those signs of approaching death which, 

 once seen, can never be forgotten. The silence and 

 solitude around me, only one of my race within many 

 miles, and the night of the black forests of southern 

 x\frica no doubt all contributed to give more importance 

 than it deserved to this pathetic sight. I had lived in 

 India and other countries where they believe in metemp- 

 sychosis, so many years, — countries where the right of ani- 

 mals to live is almost as much respected as that of man, 

 — that it may have had a great effect on my thoughts and 

 ideas. But I could not help wondering, as this poor 

 animal, so human in his death-throes, lay in my arms. 



