_ SOUTH AFRICA FIFTY YEARS AGO 47 
- the women are not to speak one word when at work in the 
fields : if the rain fails, why of course the women spoke ! 
a We travelled very slowly towards Mabotsé, Livingstone’s 
station, and on our arrival there received every kindness and 
| attention from him and Mrs. Livingstone, guides to the country 
to the north, with advice as to route, &c. Livingstone had 
not long got over his lion mishap—get over it altogether, in- 
_ deed, he never did—the overlapping end of the broken 
_ humerus was visible enough when the body was brought home. 
| The story of the accident was fresh with him and the Kafirs 
' when we reached Mabotsé. A lion had killed an ox near the 
_ village, and the Ba-Katla turned out, as theyalways did when the 
_ lion deserted his game, and attacked their herds. Each man, 
__as is usual in a hunt of this kind, carried two or three assegais 
_ and a plume of ostrich feathers on a pointed six-foot stick. 
_ The lion was tracked to his sleeping place, and the men madea 
_ ring round it, gradually closing the space between man and man 
_ as they advanced. Presently the quarry was roused and sat up, 
_ then a spearman, taking a few steps in advance, threw his 
_assegai. The thrower is generally charged, but the animal’s 
: ‘attention is immediately taken off by a second spearman and 
second assegai, and so on until, poor beast, it is killed. 
_ Accidents seldom occur in fairly open ground, as the men 
_ support one another very coolly and effectively. In rocky 
_ places the sport is dangerous ; sometimes, however, even in 
_ favourable spots, the man is pressed closely by the beast, and 
_ he then as he runs plants the stick with the plume firmly in 
_ the ground and dodges away from it ; the lion, half-blinded by 
Tage, sees something before him, and springs at the ostrich 
feathers, giving the man a chance of escape. In Livingstone’s 
case they had lost the lion after wounding it, and were looking 
for it ; the dear old Doctor caught sight of its tail switching back- 
wards and forwards. Up and off went a~gun that would 
hardly have killed a strong tomtit. Livingstone was spun 
Over eight or ten feet, and the lion was standing over him. 
The brute took his arm in its mouth and put a heavy paw on 
