Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa. David Livingstone
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venture to kill an ox. His approach is always stealthy, except when wounded; and any appearance of a trap is enough to cause him to refrain from making the last spring. This seems characteristic of the feline species; when a goat is picketed in India for the purpose of enabling the huntsmen to shoot a tiger by night, if on a plain, he would whip off the animal so quickly by a stroke of the paw that no one could take aim; to obviate this, a small pit is dug, and the goat is picketed to a stake in the bottom; a small stone is tied in the ear of the goat, which makes him cry the whole night. When the tiger sees the appearance of a trap, he walks round and round the pit, and allows the hunter, who is lying in wait, to have a fair shot.
* (Greek) sigma-tau-omicron-rho-gamma-eta.
When a lion is very hungry, and lying in wait, the sight of an animal may make him commence stalking it. In one case a man, while stealthily crawling towards a rhinoceros, happened to glance behind him, and found to his horror a lion STALKING HIM; he only escaped by springing up a tree like a cat. At Lopepe a lioness sprang on the after quarter of Mr. Oswell's horse, and when we came up to him we found the marks of the claws on the horse, and a scratch on Mr. O.'s hand. The horse, on feeling the lion on him, sprang away, and the rider, caught by a wait-a-bit thorn, was brought to the ground and rendered insensible. His dogs saved him. Another English gentleman (Captain Codrington) was surprised in the same way, though not hunting the lion at the time, but turning round he shot him dead in the neck. By accident a horse belonging to Codrington ran away, but was stopped by the bridle catching a stump; there he remained a prisoner two days, and when found the whole space around was marked by the footprints of lions. They had evidently been afraid to attack the haltered horse from fear that it was a trap. Two lions came up by night to within three yards of oxen tied to a wagon, and a sheep tied to a tree, and stood roaring, but afraid to make a spring. On another occasion one of our party was lying sound asleep and unconscious of danger between two natives behind a bush at Mashue; the fire was nearly out at their feet in consequence of all being completely tired out by the fatigues of the previous day; a lion came up to within three yards of the fire, and there commenced roaring instead of making a spring: the fact of their riding-ox being tied to the bush was the only reason the lion had for not following his instinct, and making a meal of flesh. He then stood on a knoll three hundred yards distant, and roared all night, and continued his growling as the party moved off by daylight next morning.
Nothing that I ever learned of the lion would lead me to attribute to it either the ferocious or noble character ascribed to it elsewhere. It possesses none of the nobility of the Newfoundland or St. Bernard dogs. With respect to its great strength there can be no doubt. The immense masses of muscle around its jaws, shoulders, and forearms proclaim tremendous force. They would seem, however, to be inferior in power to those of the Indian tiger. Most of those feats of strength that I have seen performed by lions, such as the taking away of an ox, were not carrying, but dragging or trailing the carcass along the ground: they have sprung on some occasions on to the hind-quarters of a horse, but no one has ever seen them on the withers of a giraffe. They do not mount on the hind-quarters of an eland even, but try to tear him down with their claws. Messrs. Oswell and Vardon once saw three lions endeavoring to drag down a buffalo, and they were unable to do so for a time, though he was then mortally wounded by a two-ounce ball.*
* This singular encounter, in the words of an eye-witness,
happened as follows:
"My South African Journal is now before me, and I have got
hold of the account of the lion and buffalo affair; here it
is: '15th September, 1846. Oswell and I were riding this
afternoon along the banks of the Limpopo, when a waterbuck
started in front of us. I dismounted, and was following it
through the jungle, when three buffaloes got up, and, after
going a little distance, stood still, and the nearest bull
turned round and looked at me. A ball from the two-ouncer
crashed into his shoulder, and they all three made off.
Oswell and I followed as soon as I had reloaded, and when we
were in sight of the buffalo, and gaining on him at every
stride, three lions leaped on the unfortunate brute; he
bellowed most lustily as he kept up a kind of running fight,
but he was, of course, soon overpowered and pulled down. We
had a fine view of the struggle, and saw the lions on their
hind legs tearing away with teeth and claws in most ferocious
style. We crept up within thirty yards, and, kneeling down,
blazed away at the lions. My rifle was a single barrel, and I
had no spare gun. One lion fell dead almost ON the buffalo; he
had merely time to turn toward us, seize a bush with his
teeth, and drop dead with the stick in his jaws. The second
made off immediately; and the third raised his head, coolly
looked round for a moment, then went on tearing and biting at
the carcass as hard as ever. We retired a short distance to
load, then again advanced and fired. The lion made off, but a
ball that he received OUGHT to have stopped him, as it went
clean through his shoulder-blade. He was followed up and
killed, after having charged several times. Both lions were
males. It is not often that one BAGS a brace of lions and a
bull buffalo in about ten minutes. It was an exciting
adventure, and I shall never forget it.'
"Such, my dear Livingstone, is the plain unvarnished account.
The buffalo had, of course, gone close to where the lions were
lying down for the day; and they, seeing him lame and
bleeding, thought the opportunity too good a one to be lost.
"Ever yours, Frank Vardon."
In general the lion seizes the animal he is attacking by the flank near the hind leg, or by the throat below the jaw. It is questionable whether he ever attempts to seize an animal by the withers. The flank is the most common point of attack, and that is the part he begins to feast on first. The natives and lions are very similar in their tastes in the selection of tit-bits: an eland may be seen disemboweled by a lion so completely that he scarcely seems cut up at all. The bowels and fatty parts form a full meal for even the largest lion. The jackal comes sniffing about, and sometimes suffers for his temerity by a stroke from the lion's paw laying him dead. When gorged, the lion falls fast asleep, and is then easily dispatched. Hunting a lion with dogs involves very little danger as compared with hunting the Indian tiger, because the dogs bring him out of cover and make him stand at bay, giving the hunter plenty of time for a good deliberate shot.
Where game is abundant, there you may expect lions in proportionately large numbers. They are never seen in herds, but six or eight, probably one family, occasionally hunt together. One is in much more danger of being run over when walking in the streets of London, than he is of being devoured by lions in Africa, unless engaged in hunting the animal. Indeed, nothing that I have seen or heard about lions would constitute a barrier in the way of men of ordinary courage and enterprise.
The same feeling which has induced the modern painter to caricature the lion, has led the sentimentalist to consider the lion's roar the most terrific of all earthly sounds. We hear of the "majestic roar of the king of beasts." It is, indeed, well calculated to inspire fear if you hear it in combination with the tremendously loud thunder of that country, on a night so pitchy dark that every flash of the intensely vivid lightning leaves you with the impression of stone-blindness, while the rain pours down so fast that your fire goes out, leaving you without the protection of even a tree, or the chance of your gun going off. But when you are in a comfortable house or wagon, the