22 NATURAL BISTORT. 



he stood in a nasty thorn thicket. I dismounted at about sixty or seventy yards, and shot at him. I 

 could only see his outline, and that very indistinctly, and he dropped so instantaneously that I thought 

 I had shot him dead. I remounted and reloaded, and took a short circle, and stood up in my stirrup 

 to catch a sight of him. His eyes glared so savagely, and he lay crouched in so natural a position, 

 with his ears alone erect, the points black as night, that I saw in a moment I had missed him. I was 

 then about eighty yards from him, and was weighing the chances of getting a shot at him from behind 

 an immense ant-heap, about fifty yards nearer. I had just put the Horse in motion with that 

 intention when on he came with a tremendous roar, and ' Ferns ' whipped round like a top, and away 

 at full speed. My Horse is a fast one, and has run down the Gemsbok, one of the fleetest Antelopes, 

 but the way the lion ran him in was terrific. In an instant I was at my best pace, leaning forward, 

 rowels deep into my Horse's flanks, looking back over my left shoulder over a hard, flat, excellent 

 galloping ground. On came the Lion, two strides to my one. I never saw anything like it, and 

 never want to do so again. To turn in the saddle and shoot darted across my mind when he was 

 within three strides of me, but on second thoughts I gave a violent jerk on the near rein, and a savage 

 dig at the same time with the off-heel, armed with a desperate rowel, just in the nick of time, as the 

 old manikin bounded by me, grazing my right shoulder with his, and all but unhorsing me, but I 

 managed to right myself by clinging to the near stirrup-leather. He immediately slackened his speed. 

 As soon as I could pull up, which was not all at once, as ' Ferns ' had his mettle up, I jumped off, and 

 made a very pretty and praiseworthy shot, considering the fierce ordeal I had just passed (though I 

 say it who ought not), breaking his hind leg at 150 yards off, just at the edge of the thicket. Fearful 

 of losing him, as the Masaras were still flying for bare life over the veldt, with their shields over their 

 heads, and I knew nothing would prevail on them to take the spoor again, I was in the saddle, and 

 chasing him like mad in an instant. His broken leg gave me great confidence, though he went hard 

 on three legs ; and I jumped off forty yards behind him, and gave him the second barrel a good shot 

 just above the root of the tail, breaking his spine, when he lay under a bush roaring furiously, and 

 I gave him two in the chest before he cried ' Enough ! ' He was an old manikin, fat and furious, 

 having only four Imge yellow blunt fangs left." 



Not only has the Lion the advantage of great courage at least, except when coming in contact 

 with those he feels to be his masters and of great swiftness, but his strength is prodigious. He will 

 fell an Ox or an Antelope with a single blow of his paw, break its neck with one crunch of his cruel 

 teeth, and bound off with it to his lair as easily as if he were only carrying a Rabbit. With a Calf in 

 his mouth he has been known to leap a wall nine feet high. Not an animal of the forest, save the 

 Rhinoceros, can hope to escape from such terrible perfections as these. Any quarry the Lion may 

 choose Ox, Antelope, or Zebra is bound to succumb. 



There is another characteristic about the beast which is a valuable accessory weapon, comparable 

 to the " British cheer," with which our soldiers are always supposed to strike terror into the hearts of 

 their enemies. We mean, of course, the terrible roar that deafening thunder voice, at sound of which 

 the Leopard and Hysena hold their breath in awe, and the doomed flocks tremble and flee. With man 

 even the noise, when heard for the first time, produces an indescribable feeling, and a firm conviction 

 that all his courage will be needed to meet such a fearful opponent. Sometimes, however, the Lion 

 seems to exercise his voice for fun, or for practice, rather than for striking terror into his hearers. 



The teiTor in which the Lion is held by the meaner members of his own family is well shown by 

 the following passage from Homer. Menelaus and Ajax hear Ulysses calling for help : 



at the voice arrived, they found 



Ulysses, Jove-beloved, compass'd about 



By Trojans, as the Lynxes in the hills, 



Athirst for blood, compass an antler'd Stag 



Pierced by an archer ; while the blood is warm 



And his limbs pliable, from him he 'scapes ; 



But when the feather'd barb hath quell'd his force, 



In some dark hollow of the mountain's side, 



The hungry troop devour him ; chance, the while, 



Conducts a Lion thither, before whom 



