The Cat Tribe. 65 



Many stories of adventures with lions have been 

 told, in some of which the lion has reversed th-o 

 wished-for order of proceedings, and slain the hunter 

 instead of being himself killed. 



Even when mortally wounded, the animal generally 

 has sufficient strength to throw himself upon h: ; 

 assailant, often killing or severely wounding him 

 before succumbing in the death-struggle. Experienced 

 hunters, therefore, always try to conceal themselves 

 until the lion has been forced to yield himself to death. 

 The few seconds of furious life that remain in the 

 stricken animal may suffice to lay the hunter beside 

 his dead enemy. 



In a few instances it has happened that a hunter has 

 been carried off by a lion, and has yet escaped with com- 

 paratively slight injuries. The lion, like most of the 

 cat tribe, when he has captured any animal, prefers 

 to play with it for a short time before killing and 

 eating it, just as our domestic cat amuses herself with 

 a mouse, sometimes for hours, before putting an end 

 to its miseries. 



Knowing this habit, the hunter has remained per- 

 fectly quiet until the lion placed him on the ground, 

 when, drawing a pistol or knife, he has contrived to 

 shoot or stab his foe to the heart, and thus rescue 

 himself from a horrible death. 



Sometimes, as in the well-known case of the late D.v 

 Livingstone, it has happened that the lion has dallied 

 with its prey long enough to permit the comrades of 

 the fallen man to come to his rescue. 



Men who have escaped in this manner always say 

 that the first shake of the lion deprived them of all 

 sense of fear and pain, and that they were then only 

 conscious of a kind of languor, mixed with a wonder 

 as to the way in which the lion intended to eat 



them. 



E 



