124 After Big Game in Central Africa 



to the camp for the dogs to pursue it, rubbing my 

 hands like a man certain of success. 



As soon as the pack arrived I gave orders that the 

 dogs should be leashed, and put on the scent. I 

 might as well have let them go, because they had no 

 sooner smelt blood and saw the kind of game with 

 which we wished them to come to close quarters, 

 than, in perfect accord, they put their tails between 

 their legs and slinked behind those who held them. 

 Exhortations and petting were useless, like everything 

 else ; the more they were made to smell the track the 

 more they showed signs of fear ; and they would have 

 been dragged by the neck rather than advance a step. 

 After expending so much patience on them I was 

 seized with anger. I would willingly have killed 

 them one after the other. They were then taken near 

 the dead lion, where, terror-stricken, they tried to 

 run away, and began to bark, and to roll over in 

 an ignoble exhibition of fear. 1 



We had to do without their assistance. As to the 

 wounded lion, we were, to our great regret, never able 

 to find it, notwithstanding a pursuit full of danger 

 through the dense and dark vegetation. Judging 

 from the blood on the track, we thought it would be 

 strange if it survived its wound. It is annoying to 

 lose an antelope, but you can find another ; to lose a 

 lion is an irreparable misfortune for a hunter. 



1 A few days afterwards the scent of a wounded leopard, on the 

 track of which they were put, produced the same effect upon them. 

 At night, if lions or other wild beasts prowled around the camp, far 

 from barking they hid themselves in their terror in a tent or behind 

 the men's legs. They were useless even to keep guard. 



