208 THE LION. 



horse in an instant to the ground. Luckily the Boer 

 was unhurt, and the lion was too eager in worrying 

 the horse to pay any immediate attention to the 

 rider. Hardly knowing how he escaped, he con- 

 trived to scramble out of the fray, and reached the 

 nearest house in safety." 



" Within three nights," writes Delegorgue, 

 in his usual poetical phraseology, " M. Vernaas, a 

 Dutch Boer, of French extraction, had lost two 

 oxen. The tracks indicated a lioness as the author 

 of the theft. Irritated at being thus deprived of 

 his property, and fearing he should long have to pay 

 a similar tribute, Vernaas took his gun, carrying 

 eight balls to the pound, and proceeded in search of 

 the depredator. His son, a mere stripling, who 

 carried the ammunition, was his sole companion. 

 It was a double lesson he was about to give the 

 first, to the lioness; the second, to show the child 

 how he was to conduct himself when ho became a 

 man. 



" After the lapse of an hour, occupied in following 

 the spoor of the formidable quadruped, Vernaas 

 found himself on the borders of a cluster of reeds, 

 where he supposed, and with reason, that the lioness 

 was concealed in fact, she was there. 



" Vernaas, who was at a distance of some sixty 

 paces, fired, and wounded her. lie waited a mo- 

 ment, to ascertain the effect of his shot, when he was 

 attacked by her and thrown on his back. The terrible 

 animal, growling with satisfaction at having her 

 enemy in her power, opens a frightful mouth, gar- 

 nished with superb fangs, long, and perfectly white. 



