ii 4 THE LAND OF THE LION 



fallen beast you kill for meat. Give orders as soon as 

 you see it down, that it be "hallaled," and some good 

 Mohammedan will not hesitate to cut its throat even though 

 the poor thing has been dead as a doornail for several 

 minutes. In any case insist that all meat killed be brought 

 in, and if, as is rare, there is more than the men can eat, 

 let the headman see that it is dried. The natives do this 

 very well, and are much less likely to make themselves ill 

 on dried, than on fresh game. 



Nothing is more interesting than hunting with a camera. 

 I said before that a close approach to game is now very 

 difficult. The large herds, I have never been able to get 

 near. Of course, you cannot crawl through wet grass 

 with a kodak. Still, occasionally perseverance is rewarded, 

 and at least you get interesting views of the animal world. 

 Scores of times I have managed to reach fifty or sixty 

 yards, but that is too long a shot for anything but a 

 "telephoto. (A telephoto that would not shake in the 

 breeze as all I have seen do, should certainly give excellent 

 results.) 



Every man has his own ideas about the way he wishes 

 his rifle carried, but there are a few points as to which I 

 fancy all sportsmen who have shot much in Africa are 

 agreed. One is to have the gun, you are most accustomed 

 to, so near you that you can use it instantly. Often the 

 chance of the trip will come, when least expected, not when 

 you are equipped for a day's hunting, maybe, but when 

 you are moving slowly along, in front of a noisy sefari. 

 There stands a lion, waiting to be shot! Or, the one head 

 in a thousand, calmly gazes at you, over a bush. To 

 pause then, to drag at a gun cover, to fumble for cartridges, 

 to give up one gun, in order to grasp at another, is most 

 surely to be undone. 



I have known a man who was dying to shoot a lion, 

 come suddenly on one not fifty yards away in a little open 



