Chap. VII. 
HABITS OF THE LION. 
139 
dently been afraid to attack tlie haltered horse from fear that it 
was a trap. Two lions came up by night to within tliree yards 
of oxen tied to a waggon, and a sheep tied to a tree, and stood 
roaring, but afraid to make a spring. On another occasion one 
of om’ party was lying sound asleep and unconscious of danger 
between two natives behind a bush at Mashue; the fire was 
nearly out at their feet in consequence of all being completely 
tfred out by the fatigues of the previous day; a hon came up to 
within three yards of the fire, and there commenced roaring 
instead of making a spring; the fact of their riding-ox being tied 
to the bush was the only reason the lion had for not following his 
instinct, and making a meal of flesh. He then stood on a knoll 
three hundred yards distant, and roared all night; and continued 
liis growling as the party moved off by daylight next morning. 
Nothhig that I ever learned of the lion would lead me to attri¬ 
bute to it either the ferocious or noble character ascribed to it 
elsewhere. It possesses none of the nobility of the Newfoundland 
or St. Bernard dogs. With respect to its great strength there 
can be no doubt. The immense masses of muscle around its 
jaws, shoulders, and forearms, proclaim tremendous force. They 
would seem, however, to be inferior in power to those of the 
Indian tiger. Most of those feats of strength that I have seen 
performed by lions, such as the taking away of an ox, were not 
carrying but dragging or trailing the carcase along the ground: 
they have sprung on some occasions on to the Innd-quarters of a 
horse, but no one has ever seen them on the withers of a giraffe. 
They do not mount on the hind-quarters of an eland even, but 
try to tear him dovm with their claws. Messrs. Oswell and 
Yardon once saw toee lions endeavouring to drag down a buffalo, 
and they were unable to do so for a time, though he was then 
mortally wounded by a two-ounce ball.^' 
* This singular encounter, in the words of an eye-witness, happened as 
follows 
“ My South African Journal is now before me, and I have got hold of 
the account of the lion and buffalo affair; here it is:—‘15th Sept. 1846. 
‘ Oswell and I were riding this afternoon along the banks of the Limpopo, when 
‘ a water-buck started in front of us. I dismounted, and was following it 
‘ through the jungle, when three buffaloes got up, and, after going a little 
‘ distance, stood still, and the nearest bull turned round and looked at me. A 
‘ ball from the two-ouncer crashed into his shoulder, and they all three made 
