beat, and we waited for an hour by the stream bank before anything
happened. I had left my place and gone to drink, and as I turned
to come back, a stir and rustle among the bushes where the men lay
concealed made me think something must be in sight, and as soon as I
got back, the man next me said, ‘There he is!’ and I caught sight of
the lion standing under the shade of a solitary tree outside of the
jungle, with his head turned in the direction of the beaters, evidently
uncertain whether to await them where he was, or to take to flight.
At last, doubtless considering that this was a different phase of the
human character from the one he was accustomed to meet with during his
midnight maraudings, he turned tail, and coming towards us in long easy
bounds, was soon within a hundred yards of those concealed furthest
down. Most fortunately I had told them all not to show themselves on
any account before I did so myself, and so the brute, unsuspicious of
danger, made for a ford near to which the hunter who had come down with
me had stationed himself. At sixty yards he fired and rolled the animal
over like a rabbit, it performing a complete somersault before it
regained its legs; up the whole line jumped with a yell, and the lion,
which I had first fancied was killed, continued his course the same as
before, only, perhaps, rather stupefied by the shot, he abandoned the
ford, and ran parallel to the stream, taking no notice of the people,
many of whom shrank back as they saw him approaching their part of the
line. I began to cover him when he was still two hundred yards off,
and I think I kept the gun up too long, for when I fired at half that
distance I missed clean. I made a better shot with my other barrel,
rather too far forward, but just catching the point of the shoulder,
and of course putting the limb _hors de combat_. _The brute appeared to
be as cowardly by daylight as he was daring in the dark, for instead
of charging he bolted under a small tree and lay down growling_, and
in ten minutes all who were coming--and three-fourths of the men did
so--had made their appearance, and were formed in a compact body behind
me. He had not waited all this time very patiently; but when I fancied
that I saw symptoms of his having a desire to slink away out of reach
of the fast-arriving relatives of his victims, I had all the dogs
set at him, and though only a few would go, and they could not have
hampered his escape, yet they distracted his attention for a time.
“Our plan was a very simple one. The five hunters and myself were to
walk up as close as we dared, and fire in volleys of three, and if
we did not kill, and he charged, we were to bolt behind the natives
for shelter. We walked up within thirty yards, and I and two hunters
stood up while three knelt in front of us and fired, the lion growling
furiously the while, but not attempting to move. The moment, however,
the balls struck him--and with a lion crouched flat as he was, it was
not to be expected that they could kill him unless one hit the centre
of his forehead--he came straight at us, roaring horribly. My two
companions, hardly going through the form of taking aim, pulled their
triggers and joined those who had already fired. Fortunately the lion
could not spring with a broken shoulder, and though he looked most
unutterably savage, he did not get over the ground very fast, so I took
a steady shot at the centre of his big chest, fully expecting to see
him tumble over, but could not even see that it had struck him; and as
he was getting very near I did not take a much better aim with the
second barrel than the last two hunters had, and, like them, missed,
turning as I did so, and running away for bare life. I was surprised
to see how the men behind had diminished in numbers, but still there
remained upwards of a hundred, who so far showed no sign of flinching,
and I bolted in behind them and began to reload, altering my position
when once the powder was down, so that I could see what was going on.
“The lion had charged up to within ten yards of them, and then, no
doubt, awed, by their steadiness, he had pulled up, and was now walking
slowly up and down like an officer in command, growling and showing
his teeth, and looking a very noble animal with his heavy yellow mane
floating around him. Very likely he would have remained like this until
we had reloaded had not a young fellow in the first rank flung his
assagai, with an insulting expression, at him; but as the spear-head
entered he made two bounds forward, singling out the unfortunate man,
who, however, met him pluckily, presenting him with his great six-foot
shield to tear at, while he stuck him in the chest with his long and
keen double-edged stabbing spear. As he did so there was a sudden jerk,
as of a steel trap closing along the line, through which I was in time
to catch sight of two more assagais being simultaneously plunged into
the beast. All those who had run away hurried up, and a dense mass
was formed, pushing and struggling to get into the centre, making the
scene somewhat resemble a native foot-ball match I had once seen in the
colonies. Such a contest could not possibly be continued long. Dozens
of spears had been buried in the brute’s body the instant it had
reached the man, while, although I could tell by the shouting that they
were still stabbing it, it was probably only a dead body on which they
were wreaking their vengeance. Be that as it might, it was nearly half
an hour before I could find an opening that led to the lion’s carcass,
and I do not think there was one solitary individual among all who were
out that day who had not gratified himself by driving his spear into
it; at any rate, its skin was a perfect sieve, and had at least five or
six hundred holes in it. The price at which the victory was gained was
comparatively small, only one man having received a fatal wound; while
the one upon whom the lion had sprung escaped with some severe gashes
and a broken arm.”
Those italics inserted in this narrative were not placed there by
Drummond, but by the writer. They are intended to mark a propensity
which he shared with many others to accuse the lion of cowardice while
in the act of relating his deeds of desperation. This one it appears
was “cowardly” because, with a shattered shoulder and other severe
wounds, he did not at once attack a hundred armed men drawn up to
receive him. Again and again had he penetrated into the midst of a
populous village, and torn people out of their houses. All the same, he
paused during the fight described, and was a poltroon. It is true that
after walking up and down before his enemies like a lion of the Atlas
as described by Gérard, he finally charged home and fought until cut
to pieces. Still he was “cowardly.” This is perplexing; there must be
some standard by which courage is judged of in the case of lions that
ordinary people know nothing about.
It is disappointing to find a man whom Lloyd calls “the well-informed
Andersson,” saying that “the length of a South African adult lion, from
the nose to the extremity of the tail, is from eleven to twelve feet,
... and his weight not less than from five to six hundred pounds.” He
knew all about the stretching of pegged-out skins, he had never seen
a lion eleven feet long in his life, and yet he adds two feet, or at
least eighteen inches, to the animal’s average length, and a hundred
pounds to its weight. Nine feet and a half is the average length of a
well-known Indian tiger, which is certainly a larger animal than the
lion, and both may occasionally reach a length of ten feet, but very
rarely. Sometimes, also, lions weigh as much as five hundred pounds,
although few persons have met with specimens so heavy; but beyond these
measurements and weights, nothing is on record that deserves serious
consideration. There is a perfect fog of contradictions about the
animal’s strength, leaping power, and his manner of carrying off prey;
so that as far as testimony in these matters goes, no one can arrive
at any conclusion. A lion stands about thirty-six inches high at the
shoulder, and, of course, exceptional individuals may be taller. He
can no more go straight with his head twisted over his shoulder than
a man could; therefore, taking into consideration the length of his
neck, those stories told about the manner in which lions bear off large
animals in their mouths, and gallop away with oxen flung across their
backs, have the disadvantage of being impossible. Thunberg asserts that
one of these beasts will “attack an ox of the largest size, and very
nimbly throw it over his shoulders, and leap a fence four feet high.”
Leveson says he leaps the stockade of a kraal whose palisades are six
feet above the ground, with a steer in his jaws; and Sparman declares
that he saw a lion carry off a heifer in his mouth, “as a cat would
a rat.” Drummond’s lions sprang over thorn fences of an indefinite
height, carrying their human victims; Gérard’s made no difficulty
about clearing the enclosures of Arab douars, while weighted with
cattle. Montgomery Martin knew them to bear away horses and cows under
like circumstances, and quite as many and as good authorities protest
that all this is nonsense, and that they never did, and could not do,
anything of the kind.
How much intellect this species possesses, and to what extent it
can be cultivated, remains almost unknown. Their organization makes
them subtle, fierce, and sometimes passionate beyond the limits of
self-control, but they are, no doubt, capable of affection, and
certainly exhibit marked preferences and dislikes. Apart from the
instruction lions receive from their parents,--chiefly the mother,--and
independently of anything which association may do for them, all are
to a great degree self-taught; each one according to its capacity, to
the extent of its opportunities, and correspondently with the character
of its own mind. They design and carry out their conceptions, they
imagine, and act the scenes suggested by fancy, they remember and
combine their experiences.
Lions are not hunted with elephants in Africa. Dutch settlers in the
southern part of this continent use horses, but only ride up within
shooting distance, dismount, wheel their animals round so that they
may receive the charge, if one is made, and then fire volleys with
their roers--guns nearly as large as Asiatic and Mediæval wall-pieces.
A number of other European sportsmen have also shot from the saddle;
the advantage of this plan being that, in case the lion is only
wounded, their horses will enable them to escape. Care is, however,
necessary not to get too close; otherwise, so great is this beast’s
speed for a short distance, that a mounted man is almost certain to be
overtaken.
The lion is a nocturnal animal, although in the more wild and desolate
regions he may often be seen by day, especially in dark and stormy
weather, and then either singly or in troops. Families of lions live
together until the cubs are mature enough to shift for themselves;
but a troop is a temporary co-operative association designed to drive
game. Andersson states that he has seen “six or seven together, all of
whom, so far as he could judge, were full-grown, or nearly so.” Freeman
relates that he once encountered a party consisting of ten lions. On
another occasion he saw “five lions (two males and three females) in
a party, and two of these were in the act of pulling down a splendid
giraffe, the other three watching, close at hand, and with devouring
looks, the deadly strife.” Delgorgue once counted thirty lions formed
in a hunting line. Many are really shot on foot in Africa, many more
indeed than the tigers reported to have been killed in this manner in
India.
Skaärm-shooting--the occupation by the hunter of a partially covered
trench near a water-hole,--and the machan, or tree-platform, has also
been adopted. Lions may often be seen walking about amid herds of
antelopes on the African plains “like Caffre chieftains,” as Delgorgue
expresses it, “counting their flocks.” The antelope knows that it
cannot be caught so long as it keeps beyond the range of his first few
lightning-like bounds, and thus its equanimity is in nowise disturbed
by this destroyer’s presence. Nothing but a stalk or an ambush will
bring one of these fleet animals within their enemies’ reach.
“Generally, however,” says Andersson, “during the day a lion lies
concealed on some mountain side, or beneath the shade of umbrageous
trees or wide-spreading bushes. He is also partial to lofty reeds and
long, rank yellow grass, such as occurs in low-lying ‘vleys.’ From
these haunts he sallies forth when the sun goes down and commences
his nightly prowl,” and except the elephant and rhinoceros, there is
no land animal in Africa that he cannot, and does not, kill. When
lions attack the cattle of native rulers, their herdsmen, whose lives
are held by native masters in no manner of account, are compelled to
take their shields and spears and go after the marauder. There is no
particular skill displayed save in tracking the beast to its lair, and
the desperate close fighting which follows is due to the fact that the
men know it is much better to be wounded or even killed, than trust
themselves to the tender mercies of a negro chief who is enraged at
the loss of his property. Namaqua Hottentots, who possess firearms,
never take any risks. They go out in large parties, get into a safe
place, and when a lion is provoked to charge, he is met with a storm
of balls. A filthy little clay-colored Bushman will steal upon the
sleeping beast with a caution and skill equal to its own. He has no
weapon but a toy bow and tiny, often headless, arrow, poisoned with the
entrails of the N’ga or Kalihari caterpillar, mixed probably with some
form of Euphorbia. This savage wounds the sleeper without being himself
seen, and an injury, however slight, is fatal. Delgorgue describes a
lion-hunt by Caffres as follows:
“One of them, carrying a large shield of concave form, made of thick
buffalo hide, approaches the animal boldly, and hurls at him an
assagai or javelin. The lion bounds on the aggressor, but the man in
the meanwhile has thrown himself flat on the ground, covered by his
buckler. While the beast is trying the effect of his claws and teeth on
the convex side of the shield, where they make no impression ... the
armed men surround him and pierce his body with numerous assagais, all
of which he fancies he receives from the individual beneath the shield.
Then these assailants retire, and the lion grows faint and soon falls
beside the Caffre with the buckler, who takes care not to move until
the terrible brute has ceased to exhibit any signs of life.”
It is well known that, as a whole, the native populations of Africa
display more enterprise and courage in the pursuit of dangerous
wild beasts, than do those of Asia. But extraordinary and well-nigh
incredible as are some of the stories about the temerity of certain
tribes in lion-hunting as told by Freeman and Sir A. Alexander, the
account given by Sir Samuel Baker (“Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia”) of
the Aggageers, or Arab sword-hunters of the Upper Nile, fully equals
them. It is true that he did not see Taber or Abu Do, those slayers of
elephants, cut a lion through the spine with their Solingen blades; but
there is no doubt that these men encounter the animal on horseback and
armed with their swords alone.
Brave as the Hamran Arabs were, and skilful, Baker, who has recorded
their deeds, was not behind them in daring; and as the following
narrative may almost be said to stand by itself in the records of
hunting as an illustration of what can be done by a sportsman who is
entirely courageous and cool, it is given in the words in which he has
himself related his feat.
Some lions had been wandering about his camp for several nights, and
they also gave him a good deal of annoyance by devouring game that he
shot. “Under these circumstances,” Sir Samuel says, “I resolved to
circumvent one or the other of these beasts. On the following morning,
therefore, I took Taber Noor, with Hadji Ali and Hassan, two of my
trusty Tokrooris, and went to the spot where I had left the carcass
of the buffalo I had killed on the preceding day. As I had expected,
nothing remained, not even a bone; the ground was much trampled, and
tracks of lions were upon the sand, but the body of the buffalo had
been dragged into the thorny jungle. I was determined, if possible,
to get a shot; and therefore followed carefully the trail left by the
carcass, which formed a path in the withered grass. Unfortunately the
lions had dragged the buffalo down wind, and, after I had arrived
within the thick nabbuk and high grass, I came to the conclusion
that my only chance would be to make a long circuit, and to creep up
wind through the thorns until I should be advised by my nose of the
position of the carcass, which would be by this time in a state of
putrefaction, and the lions would most probably be with the body.
“Accordingly, I struck off to my left, and continuing straight forward
for some hundred yards, again struck into the thick jungle, and came
round to the wind. Success depended on extreme caution, therefore I
advised my three men to keep close behind me with the spare rifles,
and I carried my single-barrelled Beattie. This rifle was extremely
accurate, and for that reason I chose it for this close work, when I
expected to get a shot at the eye or the forehead of a lion crouching
in the bush. Softly, and with difficulty, I crept forward, followed
closely by my men, through the high withered grass beneath the dense
green nabbuk bushes, peering through the thick covert with nerves
strung to the full pitch and finger on the trigger, ready for any
emergency. We had thus advanced for about half an hour, during which I
frequently applied my nose to within a foot of the ground to catch the
scent, when a sudden puff of wind brought the unmistakable smell of
decomposing flesh. For a moment I halted, and looking round at my men,
made a sign that we were near the carcass, and that they were to be
ready with the rifles.
“Again I crept forward, bending and sometimes crawling beneath the
thorns, to avoid the smallest noise. As I approached, the scent became
stronger, until at length I felt that I must be close to the carcass.
This was highly exciting. Fully prepared for a quick shot, I stealthily
crept on. A tremendous roar in the dense thorns within a few feet of me
suddenly brought the rifle to my shoulder; almost at the same instant
I saw the three-quarters figure of either a lion or a lioness within
three yards of me, on the other side of the bush under which I had
been creeping. The foliage concealed the head, but I could almost have
touched the shoulder with my rifle. Much depended upon the bullet, and
I fired exactly through the centre of the shoulder. Another tremendous
roar, and a crash in the bushes, as the animal made a bound forward,
was followed by another roar and a second lion took the exact position
of the last, and stood wondering at the report of the rifle, and
seeking for the cause of this intrusion. This was a grand lion with a
shaggy mane; but I was unloaded. Keeping my eyes fixed upon the beast,
I stretched my hand back for a spare rifle; the lion remained standing,
but gazing up wind with his head raised, and snuffing in the air for
the scent of an enemy.
“I looked back for an instant, and saw my Tokrooris faltering about
five yards behind me. I looked daggers at them, gnashing my teeth, and
shaking my fist. They saw the lion, and Taber Noor, snatching a rifle
from Hadji Ali, was just about to bring it, when Hassan, ashamed, ran
forward--the lion disappeared at the same moment. Never was such a
fine chance lost through the indecision of gun-bearers.... But where
was the first lion? Some remains of the buffalo lay upon my right,
and I expected to find him most probably crouching in the thorns near
us. Having reloaded, I took my Reilly No. 10 rifle, and listened
attentively for a sound. Presently I heard within a low growl. Taber
Noor drew his sword, and with his shield before him searched for the
lion, while I crept forward towards the sound, which was repeated. A
loud roar, accompanied by a rush in the jungle, showed us a glimpse
of the lion as he bounded off within ten or twelve yards, but I had
no chance to fire. Again the low growl was repeated, and upon quietly
creeping towards the spot, I saw a splendid animal crouched upon the
ground, among the withered and broken grass. The lioness lay dying
from the bullet wound in her shoulder. Occasionally in her rage she
bit her own paw violently, and then struck and clawed the ground. A
pool of blood was by her side. She was about ten yards from us, and
I instructed my men to throw a clod of earth at her (there were no
stones), to prove whether she could rise, while I stood ready with the
rifle. She merely replied with a dull roar, and I ended her misery with
a ball through the head.”
“Lions,” says Andersson, “if captured when quite young, and treated
with kindness, become readily domesticated, and greatly attached
to their owners, whom they follow about like dogs.” This statement
is hardly worthy of its author, and the fact that these beasts are
often kept in African villages, and made pets of by Asiatic rulers,
does not at all warrant his sweeping assertion. He knew better than
to suppose that a young wild beast did not inherit the traits of its
ancestors, or that one cub was the same as another. Likewise there is
no reason to doubt that he was acquainted with the incidents which
constantly attend such experiments in the places mentioned. All this
has already been discussed, but the lion’s place in the opinions of
those who live in the same land with him, and are unprepared to meet
his majesty, is a more convincing proof with respect to his character
than any other that could be advanced. A very small portion of mankind
respect anything that they do not fear. Wherever lions exist under the
conditions mentioned, they are dreaded, and with reason, and then, very
often, their “daring and audacity almost exceed belief,” according to
Andersson, who after all expresses the sense of those writers in whose
self-contradictory evidence they are called cowards. It was because
men dreaded the lion that he became the emblem of wisdom in Assyrian
sculpture and the type of courage in Hebrew poetry; that his head
crowns the body of an Egyptian god, and that his form has been taken
as a royal cognizance in the East and West. For no other cause is it
that death is the penalty for any one but a ruler to wear his claws in
Zululand, or that among the Algerian Arabs his whole body possesses
magic virtues.
Lion flesh is eaten in various parts of the earth, although that counts
for nothing with regard to its edibility, for men in certain phases of
development eat everything. Andersson ate some (“The Okovango River”)
and found it white, juicy, and “not unlike veal.” Much the same was
said ages before his time in Philostratos’ Life of Apollonius of Tyana,
and though this work is doubtless an Alexandrian forgery, the evidence
in this particular is just as good as if it were authentic.
In an account of this creature it remains to say a few words more
about its intellect, and the conditions under which it is developed.
Given the raw material of mind as a variable quantity in all beings
belonging to the same group, the difference between them, apart from
that which depends upon unequal endowment, results from the degree
to which the exigencies of life force individuals to use that amount
of intelligence which they possess. Existence to a lion is a very
different thing in one place and another; it is difficult or easy,
varied or monotonous, dangerous or safe, solitary or the reverse. In
other words, those adjustments of internal to external coexistences and
sequences which constitute what is essential in life, may be many and
great, or few and small. In either case adaptations must be made, but
unequal enlargements of faculty are the necessary results. Take, for
example, the average lion and place him, as he is placed in fact, under
the opposite conditions of having been born and reared in a desert,
or brought forth amid a cluster of villages and trained to prey upon
human beings. That such specimens cannot be the same needs no saying,
and if not these, then not any who are differently placed; so that to
go into some large province and write about this beast as if the few
individuals met with summarized all the possibilities of its race, is
manifestly absurd. Actually, and as far as he goes, a lion is as much
an individual as a man; like men also, the more general resemblances
and differences among them which are not due to organization, depend
upon their position.
Diminish the quantity of game in the area where a lion lives, and its
character is altered. Take away certain objects of prey, and replace
them with others, and the brute will be more or less cunning, fierce,
bold, enterprising, and active. He cannot live at all, without adapting
himself to the character of those beings among whom his lot is cast,
and as they change so will he change also. The same is true with
respect to alterations in physical conditions.