48 
AFRICAN HUNTING. 
After that we were utterly defeated, and the brutes 
were allowed to eat their meal unmolested, which 
they continued to do for some time, growling fiercely 
all the while. The Kaffirs said there were five in all. 
I fired once again, but without effect; and we all sat 
shivering with cold, without any clothes on, till near 
day-break, wdien our enemies beat a retreat, and I 
was not sorry to turn in again between the blankets. 
I was just beginning to get warm again when I was 
aroused by a double shot, and rushed out on hearing 
that the driver and after-rider had shot the lion. We 
went to the spot and found a fine lioness dead, with 
a bullet through the ribs from the after-rider; a good 
shot, as she was at least 150 yards off. Another had 
entered the neck, just behind the head, and travelled 
all along the spine nearly to the root of the tail. I 
claimed that shot, and forthwith proceeded to skin 
her. I cut out the ball: it proved to be my shot 
out of Clifton’s rifle ; this accounted for her ferocious 
onslaught. The after-rider was rather chopfallen at 
having to give her up to the rightful owner. 
Diza got a claw in his thigh, and the gun which 
he had in his hand was frightfully scratched on the 
stock : rather sharp practice. A strong-nerved old 
Kaffir woman lay in the hut the whole time, without 
a door or anything whatever between her and the 
lions, and kept as still as a mouse all the while. 
30 tii. — Hearing that White was back again at 
the Kaffir chief Umbop’s, Clifton and I rode off to 
see the party, some twelve miles off. Clifton gave 
