222 SPORT IN ASIA AND AFRICA 



monarch probably took credit for every lion killed 

 by any member of the royal hunting-party, and 

 the figures are evidently round estimates ; but lions 

 appear to have been extraordinarily numerous in 

 Western Asia, and the Assyrian was, as the Bible 

 tells us, a mighty hunter before the Lord. For 

 a battle at close quarters, the Assyrian equipment 

 was probably as effective as modern firearms. 

 The African of to-day shows what can be done 

 with a spear, and an arrow of the kind used by 

 the Assyrians, as depicted in the friezes, must 

 have been a very formidable weapon. A lion is 

 a soft-skinned animal, and an arrow, driven 

 through any part of a lion, would cripple him 

 more than a badly placed shot from a cordite 

 rifle ; and, if driven through the heart, would be 

 quite as effective as a rifle-bullet. Casualties in 

 these combats among the beaters and attendants 

 were doubtless numerous, but this would not 

 disturb the serenity of an Oriental potentate. 



Hunting lions with horses in East Africa pre- 

 supposes, however, the possession of large means. 

 The horses cost considerable sums of money, and, 

 exposed as they are to the risk of accident and to 

 horse-sickness and the tsetse-fly, their tenure of 

 life is very uncertain. The chance encounter, 

 when it does come off, is fine sport, and if you 

 rise early enough in the morning and hunt steadily 

 in lion country, the probabilities are that you 

 will come across one or more of the animals sooner 

 or later. 



While we were in camp on the Guaso Nyiro, on 

 our way to the Lorian, we heard lions roaring 

 finely one night, and on another occasion I saw a 



