THE LION. 139 



the Lion. When the Boer was about a hundred yards from the lad, he saw him stop, 

 raise his gun, and fire suddenly, though apparently without aim, and then turn, run- 

 ning a few paces toward him. At the same instant, he saw the Lion make two 

 prodigious bounds, and alight on his boy, whom he instantly dragged to the ground. 



All this occurred in a very few seconds ; so that before the Boer, who ran to the 

 rescue, arrived, the young Dutchman was mortally wounded. The Lion, crouching 

 down among the long grass, retreated a few yards, then bounded over the rocks and 

 reeds until out of sight, the shot which was fired by the old Boer being unheeded by 

 him. When the father reached the fatal spot, he found his son senseless, and torn so 

 fearfully as to preclude all possibility of recovery. He, however, had him conveyed 

 home, but the lad never again spoke, and died during the night. Revenge was the first 

 thought of the old Dutchman, who immediately sent round to his neighbors to warn 

 them that a Lion was in their vicinity, and to beg their assistance on the following 

 day in tracing the Lion to its den. 



The night was passed by the Boer as usual ; for these men are very philosophic, 

 and rarely allow any circumstance to interfere with their comfort. On the following 

 morning, however, he was up very early, busily preparing for the great business of the 

 day ; bullets were being cast and powder-horns filled, etc., etc., when he was suddenly 

 interrupted by the entrance of his little Bushman, who had, since his capture by the 

 Boer some years before, reached his full growth, and might be estimated at any age 

 between sixteen and sixty. 



' What do you here ? ' asked the Dutchman. 



The Bushman, who was armed with his tiny bow and arrows, answered by showing 

 a small tuft of black hair like a shaving brush. 



This was an intelligible answer to the Boer, who, with eagerness, demanded the 

 particulars ; and the following is a translation of the Bushman's account. 



When the Lion struck down the young Dutchman, the Bushman was sitting upon a 

 rock which commanded a view of the scene. The little creature then watched the 

 Lion in its retreat, and marked it down amongst some long grass and bushes at the dis- 

 tance of a mile or so. He then procured an old and nearly useless ox from the cattle 

 kraal, and, arming himself with his bow and poisonous arrows, drove the beast close 

 to the Lion's retreat, made it fast to a bush, and concealed himself in some long grass. 



The Bushman, from his nocturnal habits, can see by night nearly as well as by day ; 

 and so, when, shortly after dark, the Lion left his lair and walked on to the open plain 

 outside, the Bushman was an attentive observer of his movements. 



The ox soon attracted the attention of the Lion, which approached with caution 

 upon its victim ; the Bushman at the same time holding his bow and arrows in readi- 

 ness for an attack upon his victim. Soon the Lion sprang upon the ox, and, at the 

 instant when he was engaged in the death struggle, the Bushman, with great rapidity, 

 twice twanged his bow, and lodged two poisoned barbs in the Lion's flesh. 



The ox was soon overcome, and was dragged amongst the reeds, whilst the Bush- 

 man sought shelter in the crannies of the rocks near the scene of his operations. 



As soon as day began to dawn, the Bushman commenced his stealthy approach, 

 through the grass and reeds, towards the Lion's lair, and was shortly sitting grinning on 

 the carcass of the Lion, which, but a few hours before, was a terror to all the Hotten- 

 tots on the farm, but now, overcome by the malignant poison with which the arrows had 

 been prepared, was as harmless as one of the stones on which he lay. 



Being anxious to proclaim his triumph, the Bushman merely cut off the tuft of hair 

 from the tail of the Lion and returned with this trophy to the Dutchman, who was not, 

 however, quite satisfied with the business, for he would have preferred to shoot the 

 Lion himself ; moreover, he grudged the loss of the old ox, which he thought might 

 have been spared to die the usual death of a draught ox, /. ^., to work until it drops from 

 fatigue, and to die where it falls. The Bushman, however, explained that, if he had 

 wounded the Lion as it was walking along, it would have sprung upon him as soon as 

 it felt the sharp arrow in its side ; but, when it was busily employed in killing the ox, 

 it would only think that the ox had pricked it with its horns, and would neither see 

 nor think of its human enemy. Therefore it was safer and more certain to take the 



