250 LAEGE GAME. chap. v. 



don't rouse us too much, we're quarrelsome too. Get 

 out, you dog ! be off with you I" 1 



As he finished this tirade he joined me, and said, 

 " That brute won't go while the lioness remains quiet, so 

 when you're loaded I'll fire at her, and you watch him. 

 Even if he does charge, he could hardly scale this bank in 

 face of your two barrels, and he'll be too angry to think 

 of going round." I put the caps on, and turned to look 

 at my companions ; the little boy, frightened enough, 

 though he would not show it, was keeping in very close to 

 me ; the other two, inseparable companions, and men both 

 noted, one as a hunter, the other as a spoorer, for a 

 cool disregard of the commonest rules of safety, and for 

 having the most illimitable confidence and belief in them- 

 selves, merely had their eyes fixed on my nipples, and as 

 soon as they saw that they were capped, the one sat down 

 to take a steadier shot at the rustling grass which concealed 

 the lioness, and the other, shading his eyes with his hand, 

 very likely because, as it would have been an insulting 

 thing to do to another native, he thought it would show 

 his contempt for the blustering of the lions, stood watch- 

 ing the effect of the bullet. I do not think that she was 

 struck, though she answered with a loud snarling growl, 

 and bounding away, half concealed by the grass, totally 

 disappeared from sight as it became longer. I, however, 

 had no time to watch her, for, as the shot sounded, the 

 male sprang forward to the very edge, and I, momentarily 



1 I have not put the original in the text, as not one man in a thousand in 

 this country would be any the wiser, hut as my translation is a free one, I give 

 it here word for word, for the benefit of Zulu scholars : — " Menabo, ufunani nati 

 na. Hamba, suka kuleli : eyako, yini, leyo'nyamazane etyaywa ngati na. Um- 

 hlolo wezwe ! Ungalingoti 'kubanga izwe nati, ungasiqali, ngiyakutyela, nati 

 sinenkane. Suka innja ; mayihambe-bo."^ 



