106 AFRICA SPEAKS 



dying sun, a picture that no painter could ever trans- 

 fer to canvas. 



Daily they performed for us, doing things I never 

 had dreamed this lordly beast could or would do, and 

 always during that time we were in the position of 

 men pouring nitroglycerine; if death were to come, 

 it would be both sudden and decisive. I had ever in 

 mind that saying honored throughout Africa, that 

 "the only certainty about a lion is his uncertainty," 

 and if one of our troop had suddenly taken a notion 

 to charge home, who would know of its intention.^ 

 Surely not the party charged! As a lion can cover 

 more than fifteen feet at one bound and most of our 

 filming was done within that distance, we were at all 

 times more or less dependent upon their better nature. 

 A lioness once rushed me and only stopped six feet 

 from my crouching self. A spht second before, she 

 had been complaisantly feeding on a staked-down topi 

 just fifteen feet distant, and what caused her to make 

 this lightning charge and then to halt with her hot 

 breath in my face, I do not know. It happened so 

 quickly that I had no sense of fear, but after the danger 

 was past I trembled hke a leaf until it was possible 

 to get my rifle trained out in her direction. A siUy 

 reaction, to be sure, for if she had continued six feet 

 forward all the trembUng and all the rifles in the world 

 would not have made it possible for me to WTite 

 this account. 



My first intention had been to make a few scenes 

 of these hons, for no one dared to hope that we could 

 keep them around for long, but day after day we re- 

 turned to find them playing among the rocks, climbing 

 over the ant hills, chasing vultures in fun, cleaning 



