342 -Kings of tbe TCofc, IRffle, an& 6un 



Game Shooting" in the Badminton Series, makes not 

 the slightest allusion to Gordon Gumming. And this is 

 the more strange because they met one another in the 

 course of their hunting travels. Gordon Gumming in his 

 work mentions the fact, and pays a generous tribute to 

 his rival, of whom he speaks as " Mr. Oswell, of H.E.I.C S., 

 a dashing sportsman, and one of the best hunters I ever 

 met" But perhaps Mr. Oswell did not reciprocate the 

 Scotsman's feelings. 



Like Gordon Gumming, Oswell paid Livingstone a visit 

 at Mabotse, and he mentions an incident highly credit- 

 able to Kafir womanhood which occurred just as they 

 reached that station. " The women, as is their custom, 

 were working in the fields for they hoe and the men 

 sew and a young man, standing by the edge of the 

 bush, was chatting with them. A lioness sprang on him 

 and was carrying him off, when one of the women ran 

 after her, and catching her by the tail, was dragged for 

 some little distance. Hampered with the man in her 

 mouth and the woman behind her, the lioness slackened 

 her pace, whereupon her assailant straddled over her 

 back and hit her across the nose and head with a heavy, 

 short-handled hoe till she dropped her prey and slunk 

 into cover. This man was her husband ! Would Mrs- 

 Smith do as much for Mr. Smith? Could she do 

 more ? " 



Not long afterwards Oswell had himself a very nasty 

 experience with a lioness, which had come down with 

 her cub to drink at the springs. The dogs had been 

 slipped and had brought the lioness to bay. " I got 

 within thirty yards," writes Oswell, "but from the 



