ORDEU V. THE CARNIVORA. 119 



man and the beast stood looking each other in tlic face for a short space. 

 At length the lion moved backward, as if to go away. Diederik began to 

 load his gun : the lion looked over his slioulder, growded, and returned. 

 Diederik stood still. The lion again nio\ed cautiously off, and the boor 

 proceeded to load and ram down his bullet. The lion again looked back, 

 and growled angrily ; and this occurred repeatedly, nntil tiic animal had 

 got olF to some distance, when he took fairly to liis heels and bounded away. 

 Tliis was not tlie only nor the most dangerous adventure of Diederik ^Muller 

 with the monarch of the wilderness. On another occasion a lion came so 

 suddenly upon liim tiiat, before he could take aim, tiie animal made his 

 formidable spring, and alighted so near the lumter that he had just space 

 to thrust the nuizzle of his gun into his open jaws, and shoot him througli 

 tlie head. Diederik and his brother Christian generally iuint in company, 

 and have killed upwards of thirty lions. Tiiey have not achieved this, 

 however, witliout many liair-breadth escapes, and have more than once saved 

 each otlier's lives. On one of these occasions a lion sprang suddcnlv upon 

 Diederik from behind a stone, bore man and horse to tiie ground, and was 

 proceeding to finish his career, when Christian galloped up and shot the 

 savage through the heart. In this encounter Diederik was so roughly han- 

 dled that lie lost his hearinir in one car, the lion havinir duu' his talons 

 deeply into it. 



The Hottentot and Liox. — The hero of the following story is a 

 Hottentot of the Agter Sneeuwdjcrg. The man was out hunting, and per- 

 cci\ing an antelope feeding among some bushes, he apjiroac-hcd in a creep- 

 ing [)ostiu'e, and had rested his gun over an ant-hill to take a steady aim, 

 when, observing that the creature's attention was suddenly and pecidiarly 

 excited by some olijcct near him, he looked up, and percei\ed wilii liorror 

 that an enormous lion was at tiiat instant cree[iiug forward, and ready to 

 spring upon iiimself. Before he could change his posture, and direct ids 

 aim upon his antagonist, the savage beast bounded forward, seized him wi:h 

 his talons, and crushed liis iet't hand, as he endeavored to guard him olf 

 with it, between liis monstrous jaws. In this extremity the Hottentot had 

 the presence of mind to turn the muzzle of tiie gun, which lie still held in 

 his riglit liand, into tiie lion's mouth, and then, drawing tiie trigger, siiot 

 iiim dead through the brain. He lost iiis hand, but happily escaped witliout 

 further injury. 



The Liox's Taste foii Hottextots. — A farmer, t)f the name of Van 

 dcr Merwe, iiad outspanncd his wagon in tlie wilderness, and laid himself 

 down to repose by the side of it. His two Hottentot servants, a man and 

 his wife, iiad disposed themselves on their ready couch of sand at tiie other 

 side. At midnight, when all were fast asleep, a lion came cpiictly np, and 



