THE LION AND OTHER BEASTS OF PREY 
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ran everywhere in this part of the country upon one Bota, a farmer, 
and captain in the militia, who had lain for some time under a lion, 
and had received several bruises from the beast, having been, at the 
same time, a good deal bitten by him in one arm, as a token to remember 
him by; but upon the whole, had, in a manner, his life given him by 
this noble animal !” 
Mr. Smith, of Cape Town, went with about forty others to a 
neighboring hill to hunt wolves, which had committed various depre¬ 
dations among the sheep. While engaged in the chase, a lion sprang 
from a bush, and seized one of the Hottentots by the forehead. “I 
could not leave the man to be killed,” he said, “I therefore went with 
my gun to shoot the lion. On observing me, he left the Hottentot and 
attacked me; my gun was useless, for, in a moment, he caught my arm 
in his mouth, having directed my elbow towards him to defend my 
face. I held his throat down with my other hand, with my knee on 
his belly, and called out to the Hottentots to come to my assistance. 
When they heard I was in danger, they ventured their lives to save 
mine;—they came running, and one of them shot him dead; and we 
brought home his skin.” His teeth met to the very bone of Mr. Smith’s 
arm, and it was a long time before he recovered. The Hottentot who 
was first attacked, carried the marks of the lion tusks in his forehead 
all his days. 
The mode of Hottentot hunting has been described in terms of 
eulogy, from the earliest times. When the men of a kraal are out on 
the chase, and discover a wild beast of any considerable size, strength, 
and fierceness, they divide themselves into several parties, and endeavor 
to surround the beast, which, through their nimbleness of foot, they 
generally do very quickly; though, on the sight of such danger, “the 
beast, of whatsoever kind,” says Kolben, “always betakes himself to 
all his shifts and to all his heels.” 
When a lion, tiger, or leopard, is thus encompased, they attack 
him with spears and arrows. With flaming eyes and the wildest rage, 
the creature flies on the Hottentots who threw them. He is nimble; 
they are nimbler, and avoid him with astonishing dexterity, till they are 
relieved by others of the ring, who, plying him with fresh arrows and 
spears, bring him and all his fury on themselves. 
