80 THE LION. 



comes degraded, and he is so filled with shame that 

 he will allow himself to be driven away, or even 

 deprived of his prey, even by women and children. 



They say, moreover, that should a robber meet 

 a lion, and that instead of taking to flight, he 

 coolly addresses the beast as follows, no harm will 

 come to him : 



" Je ne suis pas ton affaire. Je suis un voleur ; 

 sauve-toi ; passe ton chemiii, ou, si tu veux, aliens 

 voler ensemble." 



Gordon Gumming, when on one occasion in 

 considerable peril from a lioness, which was in the 

 act of attacking him, essayed on her, in the most 

 approved fashion, both his eye aud voice, and 

 would seem to have escaped the clutches of the 

 infuriated beast by the adoption of these expedients. 



After informing us he was in the act of pursuing 

 two reitbucks, a male and a female, he goes on to 

 say, " Suddenly I observed two huge yellow 

 lionesses, about one hundred and fifty yards to my 

 left, walking along the edge of the reeds, and 

 holding a course parallel to my own. The reitbucks 

 smelt the lions aud lay down, I got very near them, 

 but they started off, and bounded straight away 

 from me. I fired and missed the buck. 



" lluyter came towards me, and I ran forward 

 to obtain a view beyond a slight rise in the ground, 

 to see whether the lionesses had gone. In so 

 doing I came suddenly upon them, within about 

 seventy yards; they were standing looking at 

 Kuyter, I then very rashly commenced making a 

 rapid ' stalk' in upon them, and fired at the nearest, 



