The Lion and the Elephant. Charles John Andersson
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seven or eight feet from the ground, in the form of a circle; the ascent and descent is by a knotty branch of a tree placed in front of the house. In the centre of the circle there is always a heap of the bones of game they have killed. Such were the domiciles of the impoverished thousands of the
THE LION.
aborigines of the country, who, having been scattered and plundered by Moselekatse, had neither herd nor stall, but subsisted on locusts, roots, and the chase, They adopted this mode of architecture to escape the lions which abounded in the country. During the day the families descended to the shade beneath to dress their daily food. When the inhabitants in- creased, they supported the augmented weight on the branches by upright sticks; but when lightened of their load, they removed them for fire- wood."
The lion, as with others of the feline family, seldom attacks his prey openly, and then only when compelled by extreme hunger. For the most part he steals upon it in the manner of a cat, or ambushes himself near to the water, or a pathway frequented by game. At such times he lies crouched on his belly in a thicket, until the animal approaches sufficiently near, when with one prodigious bound he pounces upon it. In most cases he is success- ful, but should his intended victim escape, as at times happens, from his having miscalculated the distance, he either makes a second, or even a third bound, which, however, usually proves fruitless, or he returns disconcerted to his hiding-place, there to wait for another opportunity.
The bound of the lion, when about to seize his prey, is terrific. Though I for my own part should not have imagined it to exceed twenty-five to thirty feet, yet others estimate it to be very ranch more. "From the spot where a noble male lion
IMMENSE BOUNDS.
had lain to where he alighted," says Delegorgue, "measured eighteen* of my paces," and elsewhere the same author, when speaking of another of those beasts, accidentally disturbed by him from its slumbers, informs us:—"He rose, gathered himself up, and bounded forward (presenting to us his broadside), to alight at fifteen paces distance, when he bounded again. He seemed to fly. His mane re- sembled a pair of wings; but I and my companions were so confounded and amazed at the sight, as to put all thoughts of firing out of our heads. The rapidity of the animal's bounds would, indeed, have rendered the attempt useless—an arrow from the bow, or the falcon when stooping on the quarry, are not more rapid in their flight."
The height to which the lion can leap is also very great—otherwise, why are the pit-falls in Algeria for the capture of this animal, as Gerard tells us is the case, ten metres in depth. Moffatt, indeed, speaks of the beast jumping on to a rock ten to twelve feet in altitude; and Thomson, when describing a lion-hunt, says:—"He (the lion) bounded over the adjacent thicket like a cat over a foot-stool, clearing brake and bushes twelve or fifteen feet high as readily as if they had been tufts of grass." Dele- gorgue's evidence is to the like effect. After telling us that he had one evening killed a Cato blebas
* I can quite credit Delegorgue's statement as to the extent of ground covered by the lion in its bound; the rather as, with people generally such at least is the case in Sweden the pace usually em- braces little more than two feet. Moreover, if I mistake not, a horse in England has been known to leap a rivulet thirty-four feet broad.
THE LION.
Gorgon, and had only time to take away the skin and head, and that his Caffirs, who were heavily laden, expressed a desire to secure the flesh of the animal by placing it for the night in the fork of a tree, at an elevation of fourteen feet from the ground, he goes on to say, "I assisted them in the operation, and we returned to camp. The next day, at dawn, my men proceeded to the larder, which they found entirely empty, not a piece of meat remained, all had been carried off; and on the ground were seen prints of lions' feet, proving the numerous vaults they had made to possess themselves of our pro- visions."
It is all but the universal belief of the natives, and others, in Southern Africa, that the eyes of the lion, when he bounds on his victim, and until he has succeeded in killing it, are hermetically closed, and that at such times a man may walk uncon- cernedly up to the beast, and shoot, or otherwise slay him, with impunity! As will hereafter be shewn, indeed, it is under these circumstances that the natives of some districts on the Eastern Coast, presuming on the animal's reputed blindness, fear- lessly attack him.
The reasons assigned for the lion's thus closing his eyes are various. That most commonly received is that it is to protect those orbs from injury during the death-struggles of the victim, a reason which to me is not altogether satisfactory. That given by M. Delegorgue is possibly more to the purpose. After describing the manner in which the Cape colonists hunt the lion (of which hereafter), and
WONDERFUL POWERS.
telling us that in the event of the beast charging the best plan is to sacrifice the horse, he goes on to say, "If the hunter afterwards wishes to approach the furious carnivora, 'the proper time for the pur- pose is when it is upon the body of its victim, be- cause during the efforts the lion makes to slay it the muscles of the jaws act in a most powerful man- ner, while the neighbouring organs remain passive, as if their co-operation were useless. Thus the beast's eyes are closed, and he, indulging in vengeance, sees no more than if he was stone- blind."
Notwithstanding the great strength and prowess of the lion, it still not unfrequently happens that after having seized his intended victim (especially if it be the giraffe, or other of the larger denizens of the wilds) it escapes from his murderous grasp, though in most instances cruelly lacerated.
Delegorgue, for instance, when speaking of the prowess of the lion, says:— "All! can certify to from ocular demonstration is, that I have seen on the back of an old bull-buffalo (Bos Caffir) killed by myself, four fearful furrows, four centimetres in depth, reaching from the shoulder to the insertion of the tail, caused by the claws of the beast in question."
Sir Samuel Baker also mentions an instance showing the wonderful powers possessed by the lion. After telling us that Florian, a former hunting I associate of his, had been struck dead by a fearful blow on the head from the paw of one of these beasts which he had previously wounded, lie goes on to say: ——"Great difficulty was experienced in extracting
THE LION.
the claws of the animal, which had penetrated the skull of the unfortunate man."
It is a common belief that the lion only feeds on animals he himself has slain, but such is not the case, for many instances have come to my personal knowledge that, when half-famished, he will not only greedily devour the leavings of other beasts of prey, but even condescend to carrion.
Animals slain by lions, it is to be observed, are not unfrequently found all but untouched. In locali- ties where game abounds this is easy of explanation, but not so where it is scarce. By some it is con- jectured that this abstinence on the part of the beast arises from his having, while destroying his victim, torn open the paunch, or stomach, the contents of which have come in contact with the flesh, thereby imparting to the latter a disagreeable odour, and rendering it anything but palateable. If this be really the fact, the lion is a much more delicate feeder than the natives, whom I have frequently seen cooking their viands in the half liquid and disagree- able matter in question.
The quantity of flesh that a lion in a wild state devours at a meal is something enormous. On more than one occasion, I have known him to dispatch the greater part of a zebra in the course of the night. The lion eating up the lioness, as related, is another proof of the extraordinary capabilities of his capacious and elastic stomach.*
*The regular daily allowance for a full-grown lion at the Zoolo- gical Gardens, Regent's Park, London, is eleven pounds of meat, with which the animal would seem to be perfectly satisfied. But of
GLUTTONY.
Moffatt also seems to have been "taken aback" by the gluttony of the lion. After describing an attack made on his party by one of these beasts, on which occasion it not only carried off a cow, but ate up the poor creature within gunshot of the bivouac fire, he goes on to say:
"When