208 
THE LION. 
horse in an instant to the ground. Luckily the Boer 
was unhurt, and the lion was too eager in worrying 
the horse to pay any immediate attention to the 
rider. Hardly knowing how he escaped, he con¬ 
trived to scramble out of the fray, and reached the 
nearest house in safety.” 
“ Within three nights,” writes Delegorgue, 
in his usual poetical phraseology, “ M. Yernaas, a 
Dutch Boer, of French extraction, had lost two 
oxen. The tracks indicated a lioness as the author 
of the theft. Irritated at being thus deprived of 
his property, and fearing he should long have to pay 
a similar tribute, Yernaas took his gun, carrying 
eight balls to the pound, and proceeded in search of 
the depredator. His son, a mere stripling, who 
carried the ammunition, was his sole companion. 
It was a double lesson he was about to give—the 
first, to the lioness; the second, to show the child 
how he was to conduct himself when he became a 
man. 
“ After the lapse of an hour, occupied in following 
the spoor of the formidable quadruped, Yernaas 
found himself on the borders of a cluster of reeds, 
where he supposed, and with reason, that the lioness 
was concealed—in fact, she was there. 
66 Vernaas, who was at a distance of some sixty 
paces, fired, and wounded her. He waited a mo¬ 
ment, to ascertain the effect of his shot, when he was 
attacked by her and thrown on his back. The terrible 
animal, growling with satisfaction at having her 
enemy in her power, opens a frightful mouth, gar¬ 
nished with superb fangs, long, and perfectly white. 
