IX 
THE LION 
309 
that the tiger when springing to the attack does not 
strike a crushing blow, but merely seizes with its 
claws. A lion, on the contrary, strikes with terrible 
strength, at the same time that it fixes its claws upon 
its victim. The force of this blow is terrific, and 
many a man has been killed outright as though 
struck with a sledge-hammer. An instance of this 
fatal onset deprived me of a most intelligent and ex¬ 
cellent German, with whom I was associated during 
a hunting season in the Soudan. 
Florian was a Bavarian who came to Khartoum 
in the service of the Austrian Mission, employed as 
a mason. This man had a natural aptitude for 
mechanical contrivances, and quickly abandoning 
the Jesuit Mission, after the completion of the 
extensive convent at the junction of the two Niles, 
he and a carpenter of the same nation formed 
a partnership of hunters and traders, establishing 
themselves at Sofi on the frontier of Abyssinia.' 
They built a couple of circular huts of neatly 
squared stones, and not only shot hippopotami in 
the Atbara river, but manufactured extremely good 
whips from their skins. These were very superior 
in finish to the ordinary “courbatch” of the Arabs, 
and they met with a ready sale. Florian excelled 
as a carpenter, although a mason by profession; he 
made exquisite camel saddles for the Arab sheiks ; 
these (moghaloufa) were cut from the heart of a 
tough wood which never warped {Rhamnus Lohts), 
and were highly prized by the experienced Arabs 
of the desert. The rainy season was industriously 
