TERUIFIC COMBAT. 43 



ambush. The lioness left the path, advanced up to 

 the tree in which the man was seated, and crouched 

 at the foot of it. The lion in the meanwhile remained 

 stationary in the path- way, and appeared to listen. 



" Mohammed now heard in the distance a scarcely 

 distinguishable roaring, to which the lioness re- 

 sponded. The fawn-coloured lion then began to 

 roar most awfully, which so frightened the chasseur 

 that, to prevent himself from falling to the ground, 

 he clung to the branches, and in the act of so 

 doing his gun dropped from out of his hands. 



" The nearer the stranger lion approached the 

 spot, the louder roared the lioness. The fawn- 

 coloured lion now became furious, left the pathway 

 and went up to her, apparently to impose silence, 

 and then retraced his steps to the spot he had just 

 quitted, as if to say, ' Well ! let him come, I am 

 quite ready for him !' 



" An hour afterwards, a lion, black as a wild 

 boar, made his appearance at the lower end of the 

 glade mentioned. The lioness rose from the ground, 

 seemingly with the intention of going up to him ; bat 

 the fawn-coloured lion, divining her purpose, bounded 

 past her direct for the enemy. Both lions crouched 

 prior to taking their spring, and then rushing on 

 one another fell together on the sward, never again 

 to rise ! 



"The duel was long, and terrible to tin- witness 

 of it. 



' "Whilst the bones cracked under the jaws of 

 the two powerful combatants, tlu-ir claws strewed 

 the glade with each others' entrails, and their roars, 



