104 THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA 
CHAP. 
perfectly collected manner, but the lioness had slewed round her 
tail like the rudder of a boat, and slightly changing her course, 
had hit me like a battering-ram and sent me head over heels. 
The stock of the rifle was afterwards found to be badly smashed, 
either against my shoulder or by falling on the ground, and a 
patch of skin off her nose showed where the muzzle had 
apparently caught her as I held the gun at the “ present” after 
firing. There was also an extensive bruise, about the size of 
the recoil pad, on my right shoulder. The lioness lay on me, 
shaking me savagely and grabbing at my arm, and E , find- 
ing he could not fire without the chance of hitting me, decreased 
his distance at a run from seventy yards to only five ; she then 
came for him with a grunt, and he stretched her dead at his feet 
with a bullet in the chest. 
When my brother, having left me in the care of my hunter 
Jama, galloped after the other horsemen, he found them halted 
round a tuft of high grass, having run the lion to a standstill. 
The horse was the one he had ridden when chasing the hartebeest, 
and had become lazy from the heat of the sun. The saddle was 
an uncomfortable double-peaked Somali one, and the stirrups 
being only intended for the big toe, were of course useless to him. 
Thus sorrily equipped, E walked the horse forward 
cautiously towards the tuft of grass, and while he was still sixty 
yards off, the lion poked up his great head to have a look at 
him. E pulled in, and, dropping the reins, took a shot 
into the grass where he judged the lion’s chest to be. The brute 
promptly came on, and E had only time to pick up the 
reins in a bunch, turn the pony round, and try to get him to 
move by belabouring him over the quarters with the barrels of 
his rifle, when the lion arrived ! My brother escaped, however, 
unharmed, for before he could get into position to fire, the lion 
pulled up, and fell over on his side gasping ; and the next 
moment he was dead. When we cut him open we found that 
the shot fired when in the tuft of grass had entered his chest, 
and when we held the heart up to the light a jagged hole showed 
where a piece of lead had passed through it. Yet he had 
galloped fifty yards, and nearly made good his charge before 
giving in. 
We sent a camel for the lioness, and laying the two carcases 
side by side, pitched camp close by. Some starving people, who 
had wandered from Harar, were glad to make a meal off the 
carrion. The third lion escaped, as the Jibril Abokr horsemen, 
