THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
In later days lion -hunting was the sport of Assyrian kings, who chased 
them in small, light carts drawn by two horses, and shot them with bows 
and arrows. From time immemorial, too, there has been constant war 
between the natives of Africa and the lion. The bushmen of South Africa 
killed many lions with poisoned arrows. Their method was to track one 
of these animals to where they found him lying asleep, and then to fire 
one of their tiny arrows into him. The lion, so they told me, would jump 
up on feeling the prick of the arrow, and then walk away, not realizing what 
had happened. The poison probably soon told on the wounded animal, 
but, according to my informants, the lion did not usually die until the 
third day. To-day the Wandorobo, of British East Africa, still often kill 
lions with poisoned arrows, whilst they themselves sometimes fall victims 
to hungry lions in search of food. Some of the Arab tribesmen of the 
Eastern Sudan are said to hunt lions on horseback and kill them with 
swords, and cases of the kind may have happened, but I find it difficult to 
believe in their frequent occurrence. All the cattle -keeping tribes of 
Africa are, however, accustomed to attack and kill with spears any lion 
or lions which interfere with their herds. The offending lion is tracked to 
its lair and quickly surrounded by a number of avenging warriors. 
Amongst the Matabele of South Africa, before the general introduction 
of firearms, after the lion had been ringed and was standing at bay, a 
picked man would advance upon it, shaking his great ox-hide shield, 
and abusing it in unmeasured terms. The lion then, seeing itself 
surrounded, would rush upon him, when the warrior would kneel behind 
his shield and endeavour to stab his assailant as he was borne to the 
ground in the onslaught. At the same moment his companions would rush 
in on the lion from all sides and quickly spear it to death, though very 
often not before some among them had been killed or severely bitten. 
In these encounters in Matabeleland throwing -spears were never used. 
The lion was always stabbed to death. At the present day lions are 
frequently killed with spears in British East Africa by the brave warriors 
of the Masai and Nandi tribes in much the same way as was once 
practised by the Zulus and the Matabele of South Africa. Indeed, the only 
difference is that whilst only stabbing spears were used by the last-named 
tribes, the Masai and Nandi use heavy throwing -spears. 
The superiority of modern cordite rifles over the best weapons 
procurable a generation ago has no doubt given the modern sportsman a 
great advantage over his predecessors in encounters with all kinds of 
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