144 



THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT 



CHAP. 



intention of having them beat the bush, alarm the lion, 

 and drive it down in the open toward me. In half an 

 hour he returned with the porters. While he was away, 

 I fired two shots into the bush in the hope of dislodging 

 the animal, but without this result. Upon the arrival of 

 the porters I instructed them to advance slowly into the 

 bush in a line, keeping close together ; and each one was 

 to shout as vigorously as possible, and beat his tin water- 

 bottle. The porters entered into the spirit of the game, 

 but the Soudanese refused to risk their lives. They 

 said that in their country the lion was feared as the 

 very devil, and no one with the slightest intelligence 

 thought of venturing to close quarters with one. As 

 they seemed so fearful, I allowed them to become spec- 

 tators of the beat. 



The din made by my porters could have been heard 

 for a great distance ; their advance into the bush was 

 slow, but steady. For nearly five minutes no result 

 attended their efforts ; but when they had almost got 

 quite through the bush, a loud, short roar was heard, 

 and like a flash of yellow light the lion darted from its 

 hiding-place, and once more disappeared behind a neigh- 

 bouring bush. During its flight I had but time for the 

 quickest of snap-shots, and must have missed the animal 

 by many feet. For more than half an hour we followed 

 its trail, but finally were forced to give up the chase. 

 Thus ended the lion adventure. 



On another occasion we had just made camp, and 

 were resting in our chairs before our tent, when one 

 of the men came up and told us a rhinoceros was ap- 

 proaching at full speed in our direction. Lieutenant 

 von Hohnel seized his Mannlicher, and shot the animal 



