ix THE LION 193 



It would be easy to produce cases where lions have caused 

 terrible fatalities, and others where they have failed to support 

 their reputation for nobility and valour; but as I have already 

 observed, there is no absolute certainty or undeviating rule in the 

 behaviour of any animal. The natives of Central Africa, who are 

 first-rate sportsmen, have no fear of the lion when undisturbed by 

 hunters, but they hold him in the highest respect when he becomes 

 the object of the chase. I have known a lion which, when stopped 

 by the nets in one of the great African hunts, knocked over five 

 men, all of whom were seriously wounded, and, although it was 

 impaled by spears, it succeeded in evading a crowd of its pursuers. 



Stories of lions are endless, and were they compiled, a most 

 interesting work might result, but my object in producing a few 

 anecdotes, mostly of my own personal experience, is to elucidate 

 the character of the animals by various examples, which prove the 

 impossibility of laying down any fixed or invariable rule. 



There can be no doubt that the mode of hunting generally 

 adopted in Central Africa is far more dangerous than the careful 

 contrivances of India, where the tiger, as fully described, is hunted 

 either upon elephants or by posting the guns in secure positions. 

 Even in Raj poo tana, where hunting is frequently conducted upon 

 foot, the ground is specially favourable among deep and precipitous 

 ravines, where abmpt rocks and perpendicular banks afford pro- 

 tection to the hunter. 



In Central Africa the climate and fodder are so detrimental to 

 horses that the explorer quickly discovers the utility of his own 

 legs, and no experience is so conducive to steady and accurate 

 shooting as the knowledge of an impossibility to escape by speed. 

 We are all creatures of habit, and are more or less the slaves of 

 custom ; this is proved ad absurdum by the peculiar feeling when 

 a man who is accustomed to shoot tigers from the secure and lofty 

 position in a tree, finds himself compelled to seek the animal upon 

 foot. In Africa, also in Ceylon, the hunter is so much in the habit 

 of standing upon his own legs that he ceases to fear the attack of 

 any creature, feeling certain of the accuracy of his rifle ; but this 

 same individual would begin to feel unnaturally exposed if, after a 

 continuous experience in secure mucharns and mounted upon 

 elephants, he should be suddenly called upon to seek a wounded 

 tiger or lion upon foot. I have never followed lions except on foot. 

 They are killed by the Hamran Arabs on horseback, fairly hunted 

 by two or three of these splendid fellows, and cut down by a stroke 

 across the spine with the heavy broadsword. 



The lion is never specially sought for by the natives of Central 



o 



