116 
AFRICAN HUNTING. 
curs carry their own food, by cutting a hole in a huge 
piece, slipping it over their heads round their necks ; 
and I have frequently met a score of curs ornamented 
with a necklace of the kind, cut from a hind leg, 
which part they value least of any, and each weighing 
half as much as the animal which carries it, and they 
can neither get it off nor eat it. 
§th .—Eain all day. I made two sheaths for 
knives, and had a shot at a hyena in the evening, but 
being out of breath with running, I missed him. He 
was gorged to the verge of bursting. 
1th .—Crossed the St. Luey, one of the best rivers 
I know of for sport of all kinds, and nearest to the 
colony; it rises somewhere at the foot of the Orn- 
bombo Mountains, and runs through a splendid 
wooded valley. Lions are very plentiful. One 
night I was encamped in my small tent, weighing 
only lOlbs., which I had pitched as usual at the foot 
of a large tree, easy of ascending in case of need. 
My old pack ox Dancer was made fast with a rheim 
through a hole in his nose, and pegged down close 
to the tent for safety ; and two Kaffir boys (the rest of 
my party having gone back to the wagon for stores) 
were at a large fire in a small belt of thorns (mimosas) 
within twelve yards, just opposite the opening of my 
tent, when I heard the deep low subdued murmur- 
ings of a lion gradually nearing us. Old Dancer 
became very fidgety. There was a lot of meat hang¬ 
ing in the tree — koodoo, waterbuck, &c.— out of 
reach of the dogs. The lion came on very stealthily 
