An African Game Haunt of the Past Davi 
was hiding. To have approached this patch of long grass across the open plain 
would, I felt sure, have meant facing a fierce charge at close quarters, for the 
wounded lion had shown every sign of being a sayage and determined animal. 
About 200 yards to the left of the place where the lon was lying was another 
ant-heap at the foot of which grew two good-sized trees, and as I thought I might 
be able to see something from the top of one of them, I went back to where 
I had left my Wafirs, and taking one of them with me made a circuit and came 
up behind the trees. My native attendant quickly climbed to the top of one of 
them, but declared he could see nothing of the lon, although he said that the patch 
of grass in which it was lying was very small. He then began to come down the 
tree again, talking all the time. He had got about half-way when two wart hogs 
that had been lying asleep somewhere near us, disturbed by his voice, got up and 
went trotting straight towards the spot where the lon was lying. They did not enter 
the grass, but passed close to it, and the lion must have heard them coming and 
Photojraph by Lord Delamere. 
A TROOP OF BLUE WILDEBEEST. 
made ready at once to repel another attack, for the Kafir suddenly saw him standing 
just within the edge of the grass. ‘Sir, sir, I can see the lion,” he called to me in 
his own language. “I can see nothing,” I answered. “Come up the tree a little way,” 
he said, “and you will be able to see him.’ I told him to come down low enough 
to reach the rifle I handed to him, and then climbed into the lower branches of the 
tree. When about ten feet above the ground I could see the lion’s head and 
the outline of his back indistinctly through the grass. First aroused by the near 
approach of the wart hogs, he was no doubt now listening to us talking. I got a 
little higher up the tree, but although from this position I commanded a somewhat 
clearer view, I could not steady myself to fire, so I came lower down and 
fired a shot with the 200-yards’ sight. This shot missed the lon altogether, but 
it had an excellent effect, as he at once charged out of the grass and came straight 
towards where he had heard the talking. At first he showed signs of partial 
paralysis of the hindquarters, but gathering strength with every stride he was soon 
