148 
THE LION. 
the runaways, seeing his predicament, returned. 
One jumped on to the back of the lion, and pulled 
stoutly at his ears to make him let go his hold; 
another hung on by the tail to stop him; whilst the 
third, watching his opportunity, sent a ball through 
his forehead. The animal then quitted Lynx’s arm, 
but, in his death agonies, crushed his hand with his 
teeth. The dying bite of a beast of prey,” Sir 
A. Alexander adds, e£ is always the worst.” 
In parts of Africa—in Abyssinia at least—the 
elephant, as will hereafter be shown, is circumvented 
(hamstrung) by certain famous hunters called Agga- 
jeers, with the sword alone, and that both on horse¬ 
back and on foot. This I can well understand; but 
that these men, when armed only with that weapon, 
should be in the habit of thus attacking and slaying the 
lion—as that distinguished traveller and sportsman, 
Sir Samuel Baker, assures us is the case—seems 
almost incomprehensible. He himself, however, when 
in company with several of these daring Nimrods, 
once took part in a chase of the kind ; and as his 
story is well and spiritedly told, I give it to the 
reader in his own words : 
55 We had crossed the river, and, as we passed 
through an opening in the belt of jungle on the banks, 
and entered on a plain interspersed with clumps 
of bush, we perceived, at about two hundred yards 
distance, a magnificent lion, whose shaggy mane 
gave him a colossal appearance, as he stalked 
quietly along the flat sandy ground towards the 
place of his daily retreat. The Aggajeers whispered 
“ El Assut ” (the lion), and instinctively the swords 
