182 THE LION 



from a brake of dense bushes. He fired at her 

 at a distance of 60 or 70 yards, and must have 

 wounded her severely. The lioness with a hoarse 

 roar turned back and re-entered the cover, into 

 which, with great foolhardiness, the hunter im- 

 mediately followed. He does not appear to have 

 proceeded far on her spoor when, without any 

 warning beyond a succession of exasperated 

 grunts, the lioness charged. As he afterwards 

 expressed it, " She seemed to come from nowhere," 

 and in a moment she had him by the shoulder, 

 her great claws lacerating his back. In this 

 terrible plight, thanks tohis great personal strength 

 and activity, he wrestled valiantly, kicking the 

 lioness in the stomach with his heavy boots, and 

 not only managed to maintain his perpendicular, 

 but, thanks to great length of arm and shortness 

 of rifle-barrel, he actually managed, by pulling 

 the trigger with his right thumb, to put another 

 bullet into his enraged assailant. She then released 

 her hold and left him. The young German was 

 luckily close to his camp, and though he was badly 

 clawed, the lioness, probably owing to age, had not 

 inflicted serious injtu-y upon him with her teeth. 

 To the liberal and immediate use of permanganate 

 of potassium was doubtless due the rapid recovery 

 he made from the inevitable septic poisoning 

 resulting from the clawing he received, which 

 afforded eloquent testimony to his surprising 

 escape. Poor fellow, his respite was not a long 

 one, for the following year he met his death 

 beneath the knees of a wounded elephant. 

 I do not know whether Africans are sus- 



