80 
THE LION. 
comes degraded, and lie is so filled with shame that 
he will allow himself to be driven away, or even 
deprived of his prey, even by women and children. 
They say, moreover, that should a robber meet 
a lion, and that instead of taking to flight, he 
coolly addresses the beast as follows, no harm will 
come to him : 
“ Je ne suis pas ton affaire. Je suis un voleur; 
sauve-toi; passe ton chemin, ou, si tu veux, allons 
voler ensemble.” 
Gordon Gumming, when on one occasion in 
considerable peril from a lioness, which was in the 
act of attacking him, essayed on her, in the most 
approved fashion, both his eye and voice, and 
would seem to have escaped the clutches of the 
infuriated beast by the adoption of these expedients. 
After informing us he was in the act of pursuing 
two reitbucks, a male and a female, he goes on to 
say, “ Suddenly I observed two huge yellow 
lionesses, about one hundred and fifty yards to my 
left, walking along the edge of the reeds, and 
holding a course parallel to my own. The reitbucks 
smelt the lions and lay down, I got very near them, 
but they started off, and bounded straight away 
from me. I fired and missed the buck. 
“ Ruyter came towards me, and I ran forward 
to obtain a view beyond a slight rise in the ground, 
to see whether the lionesses had gone. In so 
doing I came suddenly upon them, within about 
seventy yards; they were standing looking at 
Ruyter, I then very rashly commenced making a 
rapid ‘ stalk’ in upon them, and fired at the nearest, 
