ADVENTURES WITH LIONS. 589 



placed her trophies upon Beauty and held for camp. Before 

 we had proceeded a hundred yards from the carcass, upwards 

 of sixty vultures, whom the lioness had often fed, were 

 feasting on her remains. 



These tawny ladies appear to have a temper of their own, 

 in common with the sex generally ; indeed, it appears to be 

 the united testimony of travellers, that the lioness is most 

 apt to be aggressively dangerous when she has cubs ; while 

 the attacks of the lion are only to be greatly dreaded when 

 wounded, while he stands on the defensive. Harris, however, 

 exhibits the monarch in one of those grand and terrible out- 

 bursts of apparently causeless wrath, to which he, in common 

 with the elephant and all the larger beasts, seem to be subject, 

 both in their native wilds and in confinement. Here is his 

 story. 



Peeping out, however, to ascertain if there was any 

 prospect of its clearing up, we perceived three lions squatted 

 within a hundred yards, in the open plain, attentively 

 watching the oxen. Our rifles were hastily seized, but the 

 dampness of the atmosphere prevented their exploding. One 

 after another, too, the Hottentots sprang out of the pack 

 wagon, and snapped their guns at the unwelcome intruders, 

 as they trotted sulkily away, and took up their position on 

 a stony eminence at no great distance. Fresh caps and 

 priming were applied, and a broadside was followed by the 

 instantaneous demise of the largest, whose cranium was 

 perforated by two bullets at the same instant. Swinging 

 their tails over their backs, the two survivors took warning 

 by the fate of their companion, and dashed into the thicket 

 with a roar. In another half hour the voice of Leo was 

 again heard at the foot of the mountains, about a quarter 

 of a mile from the camp ; and from the wagon top we could 

 perceive a savage monster rampant, with his tail hoisted and 

 whirling in a circle, charging furiously along the base of the 

 range, and in desperate wrath, making towards John April, 



