146 
THE LION. 
the lion is thus struck, he springs from his lair, and 
bounds off as helpless as the stricken deer. The 
work is done ! The shaft of death has pierced his 
heart, without even breaking the slumbers of the 
lioness, which may have been lying beside him. 
And in the course of a few hours, or even less (the 
Bushmen knowing where to look for him) he is 
found either dead, or in the agonies of death.” 
Another expedient adopted by the natives of cer¬ 
tain parts of Africa for the destruction of the lion, 
or rather in aid thereof, which, from its singularity, 
is deserving of notice, is thus related by Freeman, 
at page 336 of his interesting work :— 
After telling us 14 that when the beast has become 
accustomed to human flesh, he will not willingly eat 
anything else ; and that when a neighbourhood has 
been infested by a £ man-eater,’ the people form 
themselves into a baud, and proceed in search of 
the royal foe, whom they beard in his very den,” 
he goes on to say, 44 Standing close by one another, 
the lion would make his spring, every man of course 
hoping he might escape the attack, when instantly 
others would dash forward and seize the beast's tail , 
lifting it up close to the body with all their might , 
thus not only astonishing the animal, and absolutely 
taking him off his guard, but rendering his efforts 
powerless for the moment, whilst others, again, 
closed in with their spears, and at once stabbed the 
monster through and through. All this was done,” 
Freeman adds, 44 not for the exciting pleasure of a 
lion-hunt, nor as an exhibition of prowess, but to rid 
the vicinity of their villages of a dreadful enemy, 
