ADVENTURE WITH A LION. 43 



"It is now," said be, "more than two years since, in the very place 

 where we stand, I ventured to take one of the most daring shots ever hazarded. 

 My wife was sitting within the house near the door ; the children were 

 playing about her, and I was without, near the house, busied in doing 

 something about a waggon, when, suddenly, although it was mid-day, an 

 enormous lion appeared, came up, and laid himself quietly down in the shade, 

 upon the very threshold of the door. My wife, either frozen with fear, or 

 aware of the danger attending any attempt to fly, remained motionless in her 

 place, while the children took refuge in her lap. The cry they uttered 

 attracted my attention, and I hastened towards the door ; but my astonish- 

 ment may well be conceived when I found the entrance to it barred in such 

 a way. 



" Although the animal had not seen me, unarmed as I was, escape seemed 

 impossible, yet I glided gently, scarcely knowing what I meant to do, to the 

 side of the house, up to the window of my chamber, where I knew my 

 loaded gun was standing. By a most happy chance, I had set it into the 

 corner close by the window, so that I could reach it with my hand ; for, as 

 you may perceive, the opening is too small to admit of my having gbt in ; 

 and, still more fortunate, the door of the room was open, so that I could 

 see the whole danger of the scene. The lion Avas beginning to move, perhaps 

 with the intention of making a spring. There was no longer any time to 

 think : I called softly to the mother not to be alarmed, and, invoking the 

 name of the Lord, fired my piece. The ball passed directly over the hair of 

 my boy's head, and lodged in the forehead of the lion, immediately above his 

 eyes, which shot forth, as it were, sparks of fire, and stretched him on the 

 ground, so that he never stirred more." "Never," says Lichtenstein, "was 

 a more daring attempt hazarded. Had he failed in his aim, mother and 

 children were inevitably lost. If the boy had moved, he had been struck ; 

 the least turn in the Hon, and the shot had not been mortal to him." In this 

 extraordinary case we imagine it was the unusualness of the scene, and the 

 perfect passiveness of the wife and children which made the animal delay his 

 attack. He required to take in the unwonted scene, and find out if it 

 portended no danger to him. Inaction of this kind is not at all unusual in 

 animals, and is not unknown among men when they are placed in novel 

 circumstances. 



Dr. Moffat had many hair-breadth escapes from lions, and we regret 

 having no space to record some of the more striking cases. The following 

 account of his escape from a double danger is worthy of insertion here : — ■ 



" In one of my early journeys, I had an escape from a leopard and a 

 serpent. I had left the waggons, and wandered to a distance among the 

 coppice and grassy openings in quest of game. I had a small double-barrelled 

 gun on my shoulder, which was loaded with ball and small shot ; an antelope 



