CHAP. IX.] SETTING GUNS AT NIGHT. 285 



heart, he overleaps. The pitfalls are neatly made ; 

 there is, however, nothing in them which an Enghsh 

 gamekeeper would not contrive as well. 



I must take this opportunity of explaining to the 

 uninitiated how to set a common gun (as a spring gun) 

 to shoot game in the night. The use of such a con- 

 trivance is obvious. Hyenas, perhaps, vex and 

 trouble you night after night, and it is a horrid bore 

 to sit up through the cold when sleep is in these 

 tropical climes so pecuUarly grateful, simply for the 

 chance of shooting the worthless animal ; it is far 

 simpler to have a gun in his path, and let him pull 

 the trigger himself, to his own destruction. Again, 

 as to lions, they do real mischief; and, after all, they 

 are not noble animals whose character entitles them 

 to the privilege of a code of honour, but skulking, 

 troublesome creatures, who give infinite annoj^ance, 

 and will seldom wait to be shot at. In England one 

 thinks differently, but a traveller who has large herds 

 of cattle with him is only too glad to exterminate lions 

 out of the land, and a si^ring-gun is the best wa}' of 

 doing this. This is my creed, though I personally 

 am guiltless of its use upon the king of beasts. The 

 way of setting a gun is very simple ; everybody has 

 a sort of general conception how an animal when he 

 chests a string shall ia some way pull the trigger, 

 and be shot, but without a more definite notion consi- 

 derable difficulty would in practice be found in making 

 the necessary adjustments. The plate (next page) 

 wiU explain how to do it, A piece of stick is lashed 

 across the narrow part of the stock of the gun in such 



