214 THE LION KILLER. 



possessed of the devil, an immense herd, and they rushed 

 down the hill, burying themselves in the wood that bounded 

 the circuitous path. When they had all escaped, and silence 

 had resumed its sway, I tried to discover the cause of this 

 sudden panic. I remembered the piercing cry I had just 

 heard, and I concluded that the lion, tired of beefsteaks and 

 disgusted with my horse dinner, had concluded to vary his 

 diet with bacon, and I entered my blind more for the purpose 

 of sleeping than for watching, mentally resolving that with 

 the morning light I should have my suspicions verified by a 

 personal examination. 



In about an hour the lion commenced roaring. At first 

 softly, as though talking to himself, and then so loud that the 

 walls of my tent trembled with the shock. I was suffocating 

 in my hole, and not being able to see anything either from 

 before or behind, I opened the door and walked out into the 

 open air the better to hear the sound. 



The roarings of the lion were not very frequent; there 

 was an interval of fifteen minutes between them, sometimes 

 more, and sometimes less. 



They commenced by a species of hollow guttural and pro- 

 longed sigh, which was made apparently without effort. 

 After a silence of several seconds he would make a species of 

 growling coming from the breast and belching from the 

 mouth, as though made by blowing out the cheeks and keep- 

 ing the lips closed. This growling at first very low, though 

 with a great volume, was gradually increased up to a very 

 high key, and then gradually subsided as it began. 



After having repeated this noise, a noise whose force I 



