SOUTH AFRICA FIFTY YEARS AGO 69 
ad - made them fast in pairs—lI slipped on my clothes and, jumping 
_ on the back of one of them, galloped towards the spring, 
followed by John, half a dozen Kafirs, and the dogs, hoping 
to cut off mother and child from the thick bush behind them. 
But they beat me ; and the dogs, taking the scent, followed 
them. The Kafirs had come with me, partly to see the fun 
and partly, in case of my shooting the lioness, to catch the 
cub, which, when it is quite young, they manage to do by 
chasing and dodging it, and throwing their short skin carosses 
_ overit. They then roll it up like a baby in swaddling clothes, 
- with only its head out at one end and its tail at the other ; 
round the bundle they wind a leathern riem or strap, and pass 
the snarling though now harmless little beast from one to 
_ another, saying pretty things of its father and mother, aunts 
~ and uncles, &c. 
The dogs very soon brought the lioness to bay, and I. 
_ got within thirty yards, but from the thickness of the bush. 
_ could neither see them nor her. I shifted my position once 
_ or twice in the hope of making out what was going on, stand- 
- ing up in my stirrups looking for an opening, that I might 
_ dismount and get a shot. Suddenly the barking of the dogs 
__ and snapping snarl of the lioness ceased, and I thought she 
__ had broken bay and gone on, but in a second I heard a roar 
__ on the horse’s right quarter, in a different direction from that 
_ into which I had been peering, and, looking round, saw 
her with her mouth open, clearing a rather high patch of bush 
_ twenty yards from me. There was no time to get off the 
_ horse, and no possibility of a shot from his back, for the 
charge was on his right flank, and you cannot shoot to 
the right. I did the only thing that I could—jammed the 
spurs in and tried to make a gallop of it ; but my follower 
was too close, and before I could get up full speed I 
heard her strike the ground heavily twice in her bound, 
and with the third she sat up behind me. She jumped 
short, however, and failed to get hold with her mouth, but 
‘drove her front claws well into the horse’s quarters, and a 
