218 
SPORT AND WAR. 
CHAP. XXII. 
the young Boers who were present that if any of them 
4 turned tail ’ in the moment of danger we would shoot 
them instead of the lion—which made their leather 
breeches shake in their stirrups—I decided that we 
should muster at the narrow or wedge end of the long 
grass and work up towards the mountain, extending our 
line as the surface became wider. We had half-a-dozen 
common farm-dogs with us, which worked on in advance. 
All at once, as we approached the centre of the 
space between where we started from and the mountain, 
the dogs ran back upon us, howling, with their tails 
between their legs; and as they turned after reaching 
their respective masters pointed to a common centre, 
at a spot were the grass was double the height of the 
remainder (this fertility being caused by the spot 
having been an old cattle-kraal. The dogs thus indi¬ 
cated where the lioness was; and calling in the extended 
line of huntsmen, or skirmishers, to use a military 
phrase, we advanced on the lair in a compact body. 
When we had approached to within about fifty yards of 
our glorious enemy, the Dutchmen, one and all, came to 
a stand, and you heard the exclamation of 4 Myn got, eet 
is gevaarlyk! 5 and not one yard nearer could I induce 
them to go. In vain I declared that we were five-and- 
twenty strong, and enough to face any lion; but move 
they would not—they declared that their mode of shoot¬ 
ing a lion was to approach to within a certain distance, 
