66 
LION-HUNTING 
[CH. Ill 
friend followed it with lanterns and drove off the lion, 
but the horse was dead. The tracks and the marks on 
the horse showed what had happened. The lion had 
sprung clean on the horse’s back, his fore-claws dug into 
the horse’s shoulders, his hind-claws cutting into its 
haunches, while the great fangs bit at the neck. The 
horse struggled off at a heavy run, carrying its fearsome 
burden. After going some sixty yards the lion’s teeth 
went through the spinal cord, and the ride was over. 
Neither animal had made a sound, and the lion’s feet 
did not touch the earth until the horse fell. 
While a magistrate in the Transvaal, Pease had 
under him as game officer a white hunter, a fine fellow, 
who underwent an extraordinary experience. He had 
been off some distance with his Kaffir boys to hunt a 
lion. On his way home the hunter was hunted. It 
was after nightfall. He had reached a region where 
lions had not been seen for a long time, and where an 
attack by them was unknown. He was riding along a 
trail in the darkness, his big boar-hound trotting ahead, 
his native 44 boys ” some distance behind. He heard a 
rustle in the bushes alongside the path, but paid no 
heed, thinking it was a reedbuck. Immediately after¬ 
ward two lions came out in the path behind and raced 
after him. One sprang on him, tore him out of the 
saddle, and trotted off, holding him in its mouth, while 
the other continued after the frightened horse. The 
lion had him by the right shoulder, and yet with his 
left hand he wrenched his knife out of his belt and 
twice stabbed it. The second stab went to the heart, 
and the beast let go of him, stood a moment, and fell 
dead. Meanwhile the dog had followed the other lion, 
which now, having abandoned the chase of the horse, 
and with the dog still at his heels, came trotting back 
