A LION ENCOUNTER. 



57 



party which he gathered and went out to make a victim which 

 should be a hint to the presumptuous marauders. After several 

 failures, they at length discovered a lion sitting behind a small 

 bush on a rock. The deliberate aim of Livingstone reached its 

 mark, but had the effect of bringing the lion bounding upon 

 him. Quicker than it can be told, they fell together to the 

 ground, and growling horribly the monster shook him furiously, 

 inflicting eleven wounds on the upper part of the arm, and 

 crushing the bone into splinters. That wound was God's mark 

 placed on the man ; it was that which thirty years later served 

 to identify the human remains which were carried to England 

 as the body of Dr. Livingstone. The affair was one of a 

 moment ; the death-shot had been received ; the rage of death 

 was in the spring and first grasp of the beast; then he fell 

 over his victim, dead. Livingstone had learned the language, 

 had learned to ride an ox, had acquired some skill as a pedes- 

 trian, and had learned the delights of lion-hunting. He was 

 prepared for his work, which was opening. The spirit was in 

 him, and the mark was on him: now he might go into the 

 wilderness. He attached himself to the Bakwain tribe. 



HEADS. 



