CHAPTER FIVE.
MORE ABOUT LIONS!
As we have now introduced our readers to the lion, we think it but rightto say something about his aspect and character, as given by some of ourbest authorities.
Dr Livingstone, that greatest of African travellers, seems to be ofopinion that untravelled men are prone to overrate the lion, both as tohis appearance and courage. From him we learn that when a lion is metwith in the day-time--a circumstance by no means uncommon in Africa--thetraveller will be disappointed with the appearance of the animal whichthey had been accustomed to hear styled "noble" and "majestic"; that itis somewhat larger than the largest-sized dog, partakes very strongly ofthe canine features, and does not much resemble our usual drawings oflions, which he condemns as bearing too strong a resemblance to "oldwomen's faces in nightcaps." The Doctor also talks slightingly of itsroar, and says that having made particular inquiry as to the opinions ofEuropean travellers who have heard the roar of the lion and that of theostrich, he found they invariably admitted that they could not detectany difference between the two when the animals were at a distance.
Now, really, although we are bound to admit that the Doctor's opinion isof great weight, we cannot, without a humble protest, allow ourselves tobe thus ruthlessly stripped of all our romantic notions in regard to the"king of beasts"! We suspect that the Doctor, disgusted with the"twaddle" that has undoubtedly been talked in all ages about the"magnanimity" of the "noble" lion and his "terrific aspect," has beenled unintentionally to underrate him. In this land we haveopportunities of seeing and hearing the lion in his captive state; andwe think that most readers will sympathise with us when we say that evenin a cage he has at least a very grand and noble _aspect_; and that,when about to be fed, his intermittent growls and small roars, so tospeak, have something very awful and impressive, which nothing like thebellowing of a bull can at all equal. To say that the roar of theostrich is equal to that of the lion is no argument at all; it does notdegrade the latter, it merely exalts the former. And further, in regardto aspect, the illustrations in Dr Livingstone's own most interestingwork go far to prove that the lion is magnificent in appearance.
Thus much we dare venture to say, because on these points we, with allmen, are in a position to form a judgment for ourselves. We, however,readily believe the great traveller when he tells us that nothing heever heard of the lion led him to ascribe to it a noble _character_, andthat it possesses none of the nobility of the Newfoundland or St.Bernard Dogs. The courage of the lion, although not greater than thatof most large and powerful animals, is, without doubt, quite sufficient!But he fortunately possesses a wholesome dread of man, else would hecertainly long ere now have become king of Africa as well as of beasts.When encountered in the day-time, he usually stands a second or twogazing, then turns slowly round and walks leisurely away for a dozenpaces or so, looking over his shoulder as he goes. Soon he begins totrot, and, when he thinks himself out of sight, bounds off like agreyhound. As a rule, there is not the smallest danger of a lionattacking man by day, if he be not molested, except when he happens tohave a wife and young family with him. Then, indeed, his bravery willinduce him to face almost any danger. If a man happens to pass towindward of a lion and lioness with cubs, both parents will rush at him,but instances of this kind ere of rare occurrence.
It would seem that light of any kind has a tendency to scare away lions.Bright moonlight is a safeguard against them, as well as daylight. Sowell is this understood, that on moonlight nights it is not thoughtnecessary to tie up the oxen, which are left loose by the wagons, whileon dark rainy nights it is deemed absolutely necessary to tether them,because if a lion chanced to be in the vicinity, he would be almost sureto attack, and perhaps kill, an ox, notwithstanding the vigilance ofguards and the light of the camp-fires. He always approachesstealthily, like the cat, except when wounded; but anything having theappearance of a trap will induce him to refrain from making the lastfatal spring. This is a peculiarity of the whole feline species. Ithas been found in India that when a hunter pickets a goat on a plain asa bait, a tiger has whipped it off so quickly by a stroke of his pawthat it was impossible to take aim. To obviate this difficulty a smallpit is dug, in the bottom of which the goat is picketed, with a smallstone tied in its ear to make it cry the whole night. When thesuspicious tiger sees the appearance of a trap he walks round and roundthe pit, thus giving the hunter in ambush a fair shot.
When a hungry lion is watching for prey, the sight of any animal willmake him commence stalking it. On one occasion a man was very busystalking a rhinoceros, when, happening to glance behind him, he found tohis consternation that a lion was _stalking him_! he escaped byspringing up a tree.
The strength of the lion is tremendous, owing to the immense mass ofmuscle around its jaws, shoulders, and forearms. What one hears,however, of his sometimes seizing an ox or a horse in his mouth andrunning away with it, as a cat does with a mouse, and even leapinghedges, etcetera, is nonsense. Dr Livingstone says that most of thefeats of strength he has seen performed by lions consisted, not incarrying, but dragging or trailing the carcass along the ground.
He usually seizes his prey by the flank near the hind leg, or by thethroat below the jaw. He has his particular likings and tit-bits, andis very expert in carving out the parts of an animal that please himbest. An eland may be sometimes disembowelled by a lion so completelythat he scarcely seems cut up at all, and the bowels and fatty parts ofthe interior form a full meal for the lion, however large or hungry hemay be. His pert little follower the jackal usually goes after him,sniffing about and waiting for a share, and is sometimes punished forhis impudent familiarity with a stroke of the lion's paw, which ofcourse kills him.
Lions are never seen in herds, but sometimes six or eight--probably onefamily--are seen hunting together. Much has been said and written aboutthe courage of the lion, and his ability to attack and kill any otheranimal. His powers in this respect have been overrated. It isquestionable if a single lion ever attacks a full-grown buffalo. Whenhe assails a calf, the cow will rush upon him, and one toss from herhorns is sufficient to kill him. The amount of roaring usually heard atnight, when a buffalo is killed, seems to indicate that more than onelion has been engaged in the fight. They never attack any elephants,except the calves. "Every living thing," writes Livingstone, "retiresbefore the lordly elephant, yet a full-grown one would be an easier preyto the lion than a rhinoceros. The lion rushes off at the mere sight ofthis latter beast!"
When a lion grows too old to hunt game, he frequently retires to spendthe decline of life in the suburbs of a native village, where he is wellcontent to live by killing goats. A woman or a child happening to goout at night sometimes falls a prey also. Being unable, of course, toalter this style of life, when once he is reduced to it, he becomeshabitually what is styled a "man-eater," and from this circumstance hasarisen the idea that when a lion has once tasted human flesh he prefersit to any other. In reality a "man-eater" is an old fellow who cannotmanage to get anything else to eat, and who might perhaps be moreappropriately styled a woman and child eater! When extreme old agecomes upon him in the remote deserts, far from human habitations, he isconstrained to appease the cravings of hunger with mice! The Africanlion is of a tawny colour, like that of some mastiffs. The mane in themale is large, and gives the idea of great power. In some the ends ofthe hair are black, and these go by the name of black-maned lions, but,as a whole, all of them look of a tawny yellow colour.
Having said thus much about his general character and appearance, weshall resume the thread of our story, and show how the lions behaved toTom Brown and his friends the very night after the event narrated in thelast chapter.
The hunters had got back to the wagons, and were about to turn in forthe night, in order to recruit for the work of the following day, whenthe sky became overcast, and gave every indication of a coming storm. Abuffalo bull had been shot by Pearson an hour before the arrival of ourhero and his companio
ns, and the Caffres were busily engaged on hiscarcass. A fire had been lighted, the animal cut up, and part of himroasted, and the natives alternately ate a lump of roasted flesh and anequal quantity of the inside raw! When the sky began to darken,however, they desisted for a time, and set about making preparations forthe coming storm.
It burst upon them ere long with awful fury and grandeur, the elementswarring with incredible vehemence. Rain fell in such floods that it wasscarcely possible to keep the fires burning, and the night was so pitchydark that the hand could scarcely be seen when held close to the eyes.To add to the horror of the scene, crashing peals of thunder appeared torend the sky, and these were preceded by flashes of lightning so vividthat each left the travellers with the impression of being stone-blind.
After an hour or two the storm passed by, leaving them drenched to theskin. However, the fires were stirred up, and things made ascomfortable as circumstances would admit of.
Just a little before daybreak they were all wakened by the bellowing ofthe oxen and the barking of dogs.
"Something there," muttered Hicks, leaping up and seizing his gun.
The major, Tom Brown, Wilkins, Pearson, and the others were immediatelyon their feet and wide awake. There was just light enough todistinguish objects dimly when close at hand; but the surrounding woodsresembled a wall of impenetrable darkness. Close to the wagon in whichour hero lay the natives had erected a temporary hut of grass, about sixfeet high. On the top of this he saw a dark form, which, by the soundof his voice, he recognised to be that of a native named Jumbo, who wasmore noted for good nature and drollery than for courage. He wasshouting lustily for a percussion-cap. Tom sprang on the top of the hutand supplied him with several caps, at the same time exclaiming:--
"Hallo! Jumbo, don't make such a row. You'll scare everything away."
"Ho! Me wish um could," said Jumbo, his teeth chattering in his headwith fear as he listened to the dying groans of a poor ox, and heard thelions growling and roaring beside him. They were not more than fourteenyards off, but so dark was the night that they could not be seen. Theox, however, which was a black one, was faintly distinguishable; TomBrown therefore aimed, as near as he could guess, about a foot above himand fired. No result followed. He had evidently missed. While he wasre-loading, the major and Wilkins rushed forward and leaped on the hut,exclaiming eagerly, "Where are they? have you hit?" Immediatelyafterwards, Pearson, Brand, Ogilvie, and Anson rushed up and attemptedto clamber on the hut.
"No room here," cried the major, resisting them, "quite full outside--inside not safe!"
"But there's no room on the wagon," pleaded Pearson; "the niggers areclustering on it like monkeys."
"Can't help it," replied the major, "there's not an inch of--"
Here a tremendous roar interrupted him, and a loud report followed, asJumbo and Wilkins, having caught sight of "something" near the carcass,fired simultaneously. Pearson and his companions in trouble vanishedlike smoke, while the major, failing to see anything, fired in thedirection of the lions on chance. Tom also fired at what he feltconvinced was the head of a lioness. Still the animals appeared to beunhurt and indifferent! The sportsmen were busy loading when Tom becameaware, for one instant, that something was moving in the air. Nextmoment he was knocked backwards off the hut, head over heels, severaltimes, having been struck full in the chest by a lion's head. Halfinclined to believe that he was killed he scrambled to his feet, stillholding fast to his gun, however, like a true hunter, and rushed towardsthe wagon, where he found all the Caffres who could not get insidesticking on the outside, as Pearson had said, like monkeys. There wasliterally no room for more, but Tom cared not for that. He seized legs,arms, and hair indiscriminately, and in another moment was on the top ofthe living mass. He had leaped very smartly to this point of vantage,nevertheless he found Jumbo there before him, chattering worse thanever! The major and and Wilkins came up breathless next moment,clambered halfway up, slipped, and fell to the ground with a unitedroar; but making a second attempt, they succeeded in getting up.Wilkins at once presented in the direction of the lions and again fired.Whether any of them fell is a matter of dispute, but certain it is thatWilkins fell, for the recoil of the gun knocked him back, his footingbeing insecure, and he went down on the top of a tent which had beenpitched on the other side of the wagon, and broke the pole of it. Afterthis several more shots were fired, apparently without success. Whilethey were reloading a lion leaped on a goat, which was tethered to thegrass-hut, and carried it away before any one could fire. Not daring todescend from their places of security, there the whole party sat in thecold during the remainder of that night, listening to the growling ofthe lions as they feasted on their prey. It was not till grey dawnappeared that the enemy beat a retreat, and allowed the shiveringtravellers to get once more between the blankets. They had not lainlong, however, when a double shot aroused them all, and they rushed outto find that Mafuta had killed a lioness! She was a splendid creature,and had succumbed to a bullet sent through her ribs. It was found onexamination that another ball had hit her just behind the head, andtravelling along the spine, had stuck near the root of the tail.
"Me no hab fire at head," said Mafuta, with a disappointed look. "Mehit him in ribs wid wan bar'l, an' miss him wid tother."
"What is that you say?" cried Tom Brown examining the bullet-hole; "ha!I claim that lioness, because I fired at her head last night, and thereyou have the bullet-hole."
"Cut out the ball and see," said Hicks, drawing his knife.
When the ball was extracted it was indeed found to have been fired fromTom's gun, so, according to sporting law in that region, which ordainsthat he who first draws blood claims the game, the lioness was adjudgedto belong to Tom.
Our hero returned to his blankets once more, congratulating himself nota little on his good fortune, when his attention was arrested by twoshots in succession at no great distance. Seizing his gun he ran to theplace expecting to find that more game had been slain, but he only foundHardy standing over one of the oxen which was breathing its last. Thelions had driven it mad with terror during the night, and the trader hadbeen obliged to shoot it. This was a great misfortune, for it was aboutthe best ox in the train.