HUNTING THE LION 23 



through the thicket. The grief -stricken lad sprang 

 up and with almost superhuman courage rushed towards 

 the second lion, waving aloft his blood-stained spear 

 and shouting, ' Come on, come on; I'll kill you also ! ' 

 But the lion was so discomfited by the unexpected 

 approach of the lad that he turned tail and fled, 

 leaving his partner dead by the side of her mangled 

 prey. The boy then went home to his village and 

 called his friends to come and bring the dead lioness 

 to the king, and this was done. The brave little fellow 

 was suitably rewarded by Kasagama for his wonderful 

 pluck, and he made him his own page." 



The following passage from Mr. F. R. N. Findlay's 

 volume on big-game shooting in South-East Africa is 

 interesting as showing the occasional boldness of 

 lions : I "I was shooting at the time in the Goron- 

 goza district, and had left my assistant, Prinsloo, with 

 three boys in charge of the head camp. It must have 

 been about twelve o'clock one night when he was 

 awakened by the loud and continuous roaring of several 

 lions close to camp. On looking out of the door 

 of the small patrol- tent he saw the boys were already 

 up and busy kindling several large fires to scare them 

 away. Telling a boy to place a kettle of water on 

 the small fire in front of the tent, he sat down with 

 my old Gibbs "450 rifle across his knees and enjoyed 

 a quiet pipe of Transvaal tobacco. After a time the 

 lions ceased roaring, the boys crept once more into 

 their mafumbas, and the little kettle commenced to 

 sing gaily. Prinsloo had just removed it from the 

 fire, and was about to prepare some coffee, when he 

 was startled by several loud growls and roars in the 

 1 See Bibliography, 4. 



