164 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



ing " in much the same way as the tiger. Like 

 other cats, it stalks its prey in silence, creeping* 

 and circling till close enough for the final 

 spring. When one lion roars in the night, 

 another often takes up the proud challenge. 

 Then, like rival stags in a Highland glen, they 

 may meet and fight it out. Colonel Andrew 

 Haggard, D.S.O., tells a good story of how, on 

 one occasion, in Abyssinia, this habit of 

 answering the challenge nearly brought about 

 a disaster in his camp. He had with him at 

 that time an Egyptian staff officer, who bragged 

 so continuously of his own bravery, and more 

 particularly of his disdain for lions, which 

 apparently had no terror for him, that the 

 other natives, tired of always having to listen 

 to this self-praise, set a trap for him. It so 

 happened that one of the Colonel's Abyssinian 

 servants was a wonderful mimic, and his reper- 

 toire, an extensive one, included a remarkably 

 realistic imitation of a lion's roar. This sug- 

 gested an opportunity of putting the valiant 

 Egyptian's boasted courage to the test. One 

 night, when the party were seated round the 

 camp-fire, a terrific roar suddenly sounded out 

 of the darkness only a few paces away. So 

 real was it, indeed, that even Colonel Haggard, 

 who had been waiting for it, and who had also, 

 by way of precaution against stampede, had 

 the goats and camels tied up, gripped his 



