HABITS OF THE LION. I53 



dently been afraid to attack the haltered horse from fear that it 

 was a trap. Two lions came up by night to within three yards 

 of oxen tied to a wagon, and a sheep tied to a tree, and stood roar- 

 ing, but afraid to make a spring. On another occasion one of our 

 party was lying sound asleep and unconscious of danger between 

 two natives behind a bush at Mashue ; the fire was nearly out at 

 their feet in consequence of all being completely tired out by the 

 fatigues of the previous day ; a lion came up to within three yards 

 of the fire, and there commenced roaring instead of making a 

 spring : the fact of their riding-ox being tied to the bush was the 

 only reason the lion had for not following his instinct, and making 

 a meal of flesh. He then stood on a knoll three hundred yards 

 distant, and roared all night, and continued his growling as the 

 party moved off by daylight next morning. 



Nothing that I ever learned of the lion would lead me to at- 

 tribute to it either the ferocious or noble character ascribed to it 

 elsewhere. It possesses none of the nobility of the Newfoundland 

 or St. Bernard dogs. With respect to its great strength there can 

 be no doubt. The immense masses of muscle around its jaws, 

 shoulders, and forearms proclaim tremendous force. They would 

 seem, however, to be inferior in power to those of the Indian tiger. 

 Most of those feats of strength that I have seen performed by 

 lions, such as the taking away of an ox, were not carrying, but 

 dragging or trailing the carcass along the ground: they have 

 sprung on some occasions on to the hind-quarters of a horse, but 

 no one has ever seen them on the withers of a giraffe. They do 

 not mount on the hind-quarters of an eland even, but try to tear 

 him down with their claws. Messrs. Oswell and Vardon once 

 saw three lions endeavoring to drag down a buffalo, and they were 

 unable to do so for a time, though he was then mortally wounded 

 by a two-ounce ball.* 



* This singular encounter, in the words of an eye-witness, happened as follows : 

 " My South African Journal is now before me, and I have got hold of the ac- 

 count of the lion and buffalo affair; here it is: '15th September, 1846. Oswell 

 and I were riding this afternoon along the banks of the Limpopo, when a water- 

 buck started in front of us. I dismounted, and was following it through the jungle, 

 when three buffaloes got up, and, after going a little distance, stood still, and the 

 nearest bull turned round and looked at me. A ball from the two-ouncer crashed 

 into his shoulder, and they all three made off. Oswell and I followed as soon as I 



