THE LION OF SOUTH AFEICA. 93 



1 Stop a little, till I load again.' When in the act of 

 ramming down the bullets I heard a shout. Starting,* 

 and looking half round, I saw the lion just in the act 

 of springing upon me/' 



This was the occasion on which Livingstone was 

 knocked down, and, as it will be remembered, the lion 

 quitted him to throw himself on the other aggressor : 

 this one was bitten on the thigh. "Another man," 

 he continues, " whose life I had saved before, after he 

 had been tossed by a buffalo, attempted to spear the 

 lion while he was biting Mebalwe. He left Mebalwe 

 and caught this man by the shoulder, but at that 

 moment the bullets he had received took effect, and he 

 fell down dead. The whole was the work of a few 

 moments, and must have been his paroxysm of dying 

 rage. In order to take out the charm from him, the 

 Bakatla on the following day made a huge bonfire over 

 the carcase, which was declared to be that of the 

 largest lion they had ever seen. Besides crunching 

 the bone into splinters, he left eleven teeth-wounds on 

 the upper part of the arm." 



To see Europeans at the work, let us now return to 

 that buffalo which had started up at the approach of 

 Messrs. Oswell and Vardon, and which we left at the 

 moment when three lions were upon him tearing him 

 with their teeth. 



" We crept up within thirty yards, and kneeling down 



