Chap. VII. HABITS OF THE LION. 139 



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 waggon, and a sheep tied to a tree, and stood 

 roaring, 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 bemg 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 Iris 

 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 attri- 

 bute 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 carcase 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. swell and 

 Vardon once saw three lions endeavouring 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 account of the lion and buffalo affair ; here it is : — ' 15th Sept. 1846. 

 ' Oswell and I were riding this afternoon along the banks of the Limpopo, when 

 ' a water-buck started in frorit 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 



