§82 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
so hot that he could scarcely bear his naked feet to touch 
it, and kept moving them, alternately placing one above the 
other. The day passed, and the night also, but the lion 
never moved from the spot; the sun rose again, and its 
intense heat soon rendered his feet past feeling. At noon 
the lion rose and walked to the water, only a few yards 
distant, looking behind as it went, lest the man should move, 
and seeing him stretch out his hand to take his gun, turned 
in a rage, and was on the point of springing upon him. The 
animal went to the water, drank, and returning, lay down 
again at the edge of the rock. Another night passed; the 
man, in describing it, said, he knew not whether he slept, but 
if he did, it must have been with his eyes open, for he always 
saw the lion at his feet. Next day, in the forenoon, the 
animal went again to the water, and while there, he listened 
to some noise apparently from an opposite quarter, and dis- 
appeared in the bushes. The man now made another effort, 
and seized his gun; but on attempting to rise, he fell, his 
ankles being without power. With his gun in his hand, he 
crept towards the water, and drank; but looking at his feet, 
he saw, as he expressed it, his “toes roasted,” and the skin 
torn off with the grass. There he sat a few moments, expect- 
ing the lion’s return, when he was resolved to send the 
contents of the gun through its head; but as it did not 
appear, tying his gun to his back, the poor man made the 
best of his way on his hands and knees, to the nearest 
path, hoping some solitary individual might pass. He could” 
go no farther, when, providentially, a person came up, who 
took him to a place of safety, from whence he obtained help, 
though he lost his toes, and was a cripple for life. 
The preceding lion stories, selected from many more, will 
serve for the present to illustrate something of the character 
of that noble, but dangerous creature. 
Here is another from Moffat, of quite as curious though 
rather of the opposite and a more grotesque nature. 
