DEATH-GRAPPLE WITH A LION.
"Undoubtedly you have," was the reply. "The lions thus described are the dreaded man-eaters, who rank with the man-eating tigers of India. Having once tasted human flesh and learned how easily it is procured, they lie in wait by the roads and paths, and spring upon the unfortunates who come within their reach. A man-eating lion will pass through an entire herd of cattle to get at one of the herdsmen; his movements are as stealthy as those of the cat, and the victim never has the least warning of his enemy's approach. Very properly he is the subject of dread, and when a man-eater appears in the neighborhood of a settlement, large rewards are offered for his head. Sometimes there is an entire suspension of work and business until the man-eater has been killed or driven away. These man-eaters have been known to come into a camp, spring upon a man asleep by the side of his companions, drag him into the bushes, and deliberately kill and devour him under protection of the darkness. While the lion, under ordinary circumstances, is not an object of any especial dread on the part of hunters, all have a terror of the man-eater.
"You never know, when you attack a lion, whether he will slink away or turn upon you; and every African hunter can tell stories of narrow escapes. As an illustration I will repeat one that was told to Mr. Andersson by the hero of it.
"He had gone out with some of his friends in search of five lions that had broken into his cattle-enclosure the previous night. The lions were tracked to a thicket of reeds, which were set on fire, the hunters being stationed around the thicket to intercept the animals as they came out. One lion took the direction in which two of the hunters were stationed, one of them being the narrator of the story.
"He fired, inflicting only a slight wound. Immediately the lion sprang upon him; he thrust his gun into the lion's mouth, but the weapon was demolished in an instant. 'At that moment,' said he, 'the other hunter fired and the lion fell with a broken shoulder, so that I was able to rise and scamper away. But the lion was not done with me; in spite of his crippled condition he came after me, and my foot catching in a creeper, I fell to the ground. He was upon me again, tearing my clothing with his claws and grazing the skin in his efforts to grasp my hip. He laid hold of my left wrist and crushed it, and he tore my right hand so that I was totally helpless. Just as he had done this my friend came up again, accompanied by his dog, which seized the lion by the leg and thus drew his attention from me. My friend watched his chance and fired at very close range; the ball crashed through the lion's skull and stretched him on the ground by my side.' The mutilated hunter was carried to camp, and eventually recovered from his wounds, but his left wrist was permanently crippled.
"Doctor Livingstone was once in a similar peril," continued Doctor Bronson, as he opened the account of the famous missionary's travels and researches in South Africa. "Here is his account of the occurrence:
"It is well known that if one of a troop of lions is killed the others take the hint and leave that part of the country. So, the next time the herds were attacked I went with the people in order to encourage them to rid themselves of the annoyance by destroying one of the marauders. We found the lions on a small hill, about a quarter of a mile in length and covered with trees. A circle of men was formed round it, and they gradually closed up, ascending pretty near each other. Being down below on the plain, with a native schoolmaster named Mebalwe, a most excellent man, I saw one of the lions sitting on a rock, within the now closed circle of men. Mebalwe fired at him before I could, and the ball struck the rock on which the animal was sitting. He bit at the spot struck, as a dog does at a stick or stone thrown at him; then, leaping away, broke through the opening circle and escaped unhurt. The men were afraid to attack him, perhaps on account of their belief in witchcraft.
"When the circle was re-formed we saw two other lions in it; but we were afraid to fire lest we should strike the men, and they allowed the beasts to burst through also. Seeing we could not get the people to kill one of the lions we bent our steps towards the village; in going round the end of the hill, however, I saw one of the beasts sitting on a piece of rock as before, but he had a little bush in front. Being about thirty yards off, I took a good aim at his body, through the bush, and fired both barrels into it. The men then called out, 'He is shot! he is shot!' I saw the lion's tail erected in anger behind the bush, and, turning to the people, said, 'Stop a little, till I load again.' When in the act of ramming down the bullets I heard a shout.
DR. LIVINGSTONE IN THE LION'S GRASP.
"Starting and looking half round, I saw the lion just in the act of springing upon me. I was upon a little height; he caught my shoulder as he sprang, and we both came to the ground below together. Growling horribly, he shook me as a terrier dog does a rat. The shock produced a stupor similar to that which seems to be felt by a mouse after the first shake of a cat. It caused a sort of dreaminess in which there was no sense of pain nor feeling of terror, though quite conscious of all that was happening. It was like what patients partially under the influence of chloroform describe, who see all the operation but feel not the knife. This singular condition was not the result of any mental process. The shake annihilated fear, and allowed no sense of horror in looking around at the beast. This peculiar state is probably produced in all animals killed by the carnivora; and, if so, it is a merciful provision by our benevolent Creator for lessening the pain of death.
"Turning round to relieve myself of the weight, as he had one paw on the back of my head, I saw his eyes directed to Mebalwe, who was trying to shoot him at a distance of twelve or fifteen yards. His gun, a flint one, missed fire in both barrels; the lion immediately left me and, attacking Mebalwe, bit his thigh. Another man whose life I had saved before, after he had been tossed by a buffalo, attempted to spear the lion while he was biting Mebalwe. He left Mebalwe and caught this man by the shoulder, but at that moment the bullets he had received took effect, and he fell down dead. The whole was the work of a few moments, and must have been the paroxysms of his dying rage. Besides crushing the bone into splinters, he left eleven teeth wounds in the upper part of my arm."
RHINOCEROS AND DOGS. "Dr. Livingstone resembled Mr. Stanley in having no special fondness for hunting," continued Doctor Bronson, "and he has given us comparatively few hunting adventures in the record of his explorations. He gives an interesting account of the way the people of South Africa hunt game by driving, in the seasons when water is scarce and the wild animals congregate near the places where they can drink. They arrange two hedges in the shape of the letter V, each hedge being a mile or two in length and fully a mile across at the entrance. Then a large party of men go out quietly, and move so as to drive the game into the opening. The hedges are low at first, but as they approach each other they are increased in strength, so that the animals cannot break through them. The enclosure is called a 'hopo;' at its end there is a pit with a fall of six or eight feet from the end of the hopo, so that the animals which jump in cannot easily spring out again. Buffaloes, zebras, giraffes, hartebeests, gnus, antelopes, oryxes, and similar animals are caught in these pits; sometimes lions are driven in, but they can easily spring over the hedges, and no attempt is made to stop them."