Wild Beasts and Their Ways, Reminiscences of Europe, Asia, Africa and America — Volume 1

by Sir Samuel White Baker

Dr. Ori, an Italian in the service of the Egyptian Dr. Ori, an Italian in the service of the Egyptian Government, was at that time purchasing wild animals of the Hamran Arab sword-hunters, and was in camp within a half-hour's march. The Tokroori brought the tragic news, and a party started for the fatal spot. Dr. Ori subsequently described to me the effect of the lion's blow. The skull, which had received its full force, was completely shattered, as if it had been a cocoa-nut struck with a hammer, and several of the lion's claws had penetrated through the bone, as though they had been driven like a nail.

If that had been the attack of a tiger, the skull would not have been injured, although the scalp would have been badly lacerated, and death would have been occasioned by the grip of the jaws upon the neck, not by the blow.

Another instance of the great force of a lion's blow was witnessed by my late friend, Monsieur Lafargue, whom I knew when he was a resident of Berber in the Soudan. This French gentleman was agent to Halim Pasha, the uncle of His Highness Ismail the Ex-Khedive. Halim Pasha was a man of great energy, and he was the first personage in the history of Egypt who sent a steamer from Cairo to ascend the cataracts of the Nile and reach Khartoum. This was accomplished after extreme difficulty in experimenting upon the course of nearly 1600 miles of river, the navigation of which was then unknown to others beyond the native owners of small vessels. Halim Pasha was the first to attempt the commercial development of the White Nile, and Monsieur Lafargue was an admirable representative of his august employer. The steamer arrived safely at Khartoum, and was engaged in the trade of the Blue Nile to Fazocle, and through the White Nile to the unknown, as in those days Khartoum was the southern boundary of Egypt.

Monsieur Lafargue was a charming man, highly educated, with a mind of a peculiar character, that enabled him to lead a happy life in the remote wilderness of the Soudan. It was difficult to understand, when conversing with him in his beautiful house at Berber, or sitting together in his garden on the extreme margin of the Nile, while the desert sands upon the east side of the wall showed the limit of civilisation and fertility, how any man of culture could endure to pass his entire existence in such a narrow boundary—the Nile, the fruitful source, upon one side, and the desert 200 yards beyond; sterile, only because the water could not reach its surface.

He had his books, all the monthly periodicals from Europe, and his newspapers; he also had his private affairs, his agency, which occupied his time; in addition, he had a wife, an Abyssinian lady of great beauty, and of gentle sympathetic disposition. To her husband she was as the moon is to the traveller upon an otherwise dark night. Her story was too romantic and sad to be lightly introduced, but her husband had given up his country, and his family in France, after having made his fortune in the Soudan, entirely upon her account. He described her to me as the "gazelle of the desert, that was contented and happy in its native sands, but would die in the atmosphere of conventional civilisation."

Monsieur Lafargue held a deservedly high position among all classes in the Soudan. He had discovered that no legitimate commerce was possible with the savages of the White Nile; he had therefore advised his employer to that effect, and he had resigned all hope of effecting the original object of his expedition. He was therefore carrying on a business with the native merchants, from whom he purchased gum-arabic from Kordofan, ivory from the White Nile, hides from the Arabs generally, cotton, and cereals, all of which, as opportunity offered, he either sent down the river or across the Korosko desert to Egypt proper.

We were talking about lions, and he told me the following account of what he witnessed as he was returning from the White Nile upon the steamer, then en route towards Khartoum.

The dry season was at its height; all the high grass and other herbage along the river's banks had been burnt by the natives, and the surface of the earth was black and bare. The steamer was going easily down stream, saving her fuel, and as they floated along, with the paddles revolving slowly, a lion was observed upon the dark and lately blackened bank. The vessel was at once stopped, and a trustworthy Tokroori hunter of Lafargue's volunteered to shoot the lion. The man was confident; accordingly he was put ashore, armed only with a single-barrelled rifle.

From the poop-deck of the steamer the whole affair was distinctly visible. They saw the bold Tokroori advance unconcernedly towards the lion, which, although standing when first observed, now immediately crouched. The Tokroori advanced until he was only a few yards distant: he then halted, and fired. With a loud roar the lion flew to the attack, and with a terrific blow it struck the hunter upon the shoulder. The effect was awful; the man was dashed violently upon the ground, and the lion fell across his body; after a few gasps it rolled over and died. The Tokroori never moved.

The steamer was now run alongside the bank, and Monsieur Lafargue, with a number of men, quickly went ashore. Both the Tokroori and the lion were quite dead. The bullet had struck the animal in the chest, and had passed through the heart. The Tokroori's arm was hanging from the hip! It had not only been completely dislocated at the shoulder by the blow, but it had been torn or struck downwards with such extreme force that the flesh had been entirely stripped off the ribs and the side; the arm at the extremity of this ruin was dangling upon the ground, hanging only to the hip by the flesh attached. The Tokroori had been killed on the spot by the shock to the system. This was a remarkable example of force. On the other hand, although the lion frequently uses this dreadful power of striking when in full charge, there are many cases when the animal seizes simply with teeth and claws, like a tiger or others of the race. (A tiger possesses the power to deliver a tremendous blow, but it seldom exercises this force.)