Upon Two Or Three Occasions I Had Shot Them By
Crawling Into Their Very Dens, Where They Had Dragged Their Prey;
And I Must Acknowledge That They Were Much More Frightened Of Me
Than I Was Of Them.
I had generally obtained a most difficult and
unsatisfactory shot at close quarters; sometimes I rolled them
over with a mortal wound, and they disappeared to die in
impenetrable jungle; but at all times fortune was on my side.
On
moonlight nights I generally lay in wait for these animals with
great patience; sometimes I shot hippopotami, and used a
hind-quarter as a bait for lions, while I watched in ambush at
about twenty yards distance; but the hyaenas generally appeared
like evil spirits, and dragged away the bait before the lions had
a chance. I never fired at these scavengers, as they are most
useful creatures, and are contemptible as game. My Arabs had made
their fortune, as I had given them all the meat of the various
animals, which they dried and transported to Geera, together with
fat, hides, &c. It would be wearying to enumerate the happy
hunting-days passed throughout this country. We were never ill
for a moment; although the thermometer was seldom below 88
degrees during the day, the country was healthy, as it was
intensely dry, and therefore free from malaria: at night the
thermometer averaged 70 degrees, which was a delightful
temperature for those who exist in the open air.
As our camp was full of meat, either dried or in the process of
drying in festoons upon the trees, we had been a great attraction
to the beasts of prey, who constantly prowled around our thorn
fence during the night. One night in particular a lion attempted
to enter, but had been repulsed by the Tokrooris, who pelted him
with firebrands; my people woke me up and begged me to shoot him,
but, as it was perfectly impossible to fire correctly through the
hedge of thorns, I refused to be disturbed, but I promised to
hunt for him on the following day. Throughout the entire night
the lion prowled around the camp, growling and uttering his
peculiar guttural sigh. Not one of my people slept, as they
declared he would bound into the camp and take somebody, unless
they kept up the watch-fires and drove him away with brands. The
next day, before sunrise, I called Hassan and Hadji Ali, whom I
lectured severely upon their cowardice on a former occasion, and
I received their promise to follow me to death. I entrusted them
with my two Reillys No. 10; and with my little Fletcher in hand,
I determined to spend the whole day in searching every thicket of
the forest for lions, as I felt convinced that the animal that
had disturbed us during the night was concealed somewhere within
the neighbouring jungle.
The whole day passed fruitlessly; I had crept through the
thickest thorns in vain; having abundance of meat, I had refused
the most tempting shots at buffaloes and large antelopes, as I
had devoted myself exclusively to lions.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 212 of 290
Words from 110698 to 111218
of 151461
