THE LION AT CLOSE QUARTERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14375, 21 May 1910, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE LION AT CLOSE QUARTERS.

SOME STRIKING ADVENTURES. The lion has always been a popular character, though he is not so much thought of now as used to be. Romance has made him 1 her own, and of stories about him there, lire hundreds, though he rarely appears to advantage in them. That, however, is not his fault. * Though he is at least three times as heavy as man, and much stronger and more active, he has no chance against him. As civilisation spreads he must retreat. He has been almost cleared out of India, being now rarely found there except in the north-west, whence he ranges through Persia and along the reedy swamps of the Tigris and Euphrates into Syria and Kurdistan. Once he was found in Macedonia and Thrace, but that is a long time ago, and once he was found in France and Britain, but that is longer still. When La-yard was exploring tho Nineveh country, an Arab was attacked by a lion on the Upper Aigris, and escaped with the loss of his horse, and lions have been known in this district since at least the days of the Assyrian paintings. Even now there are many lions in the plains of Susiana, the modern Khuzistan, and in the mountain country south of Shiraz. West of Shiraz some 35 miles is the valley of Dashtiarjan, where lions are said to be as plentiful as in any place in Africa. Sir Oliver St. John, when superintendent of the Persian telegraph department, had a curious experience when riding down the hill into this valley. As ho was jogging along a lioness appeared about 30 yards ahead. As St. John had only a 'small revolver with him, which was practically useless against such game, ho cracked his whip and shouted, thinking this would make her bolt, but instead of uoing so she charged ana sprang, coming* down" under his feet. "He spurred his horse, which refused to move, 1 and the lioness then attacked from the rear, standing on her hind legs and clawing the horse's hind-quarters. ■ Hereupon St. John jumped off, and the horse began to plunge and rear, knocking over the lioness and moving away. The lioness followed him, and St. John tired two shots over her head to frighten her, when she again sprang on the horse's hindquarters, and the horse went off with her into tho jungle. ' . St. John lollowed, and after an hour found his horse, which hud somehow got rid of the lioness. The horse was scored with ! claw marks, but one scratch only had penetrated to the flesh, and St. John sowed up the wound, but tho marks remained for life, and two years afterward a Dr. Wills, who saw them, remarked how very apparent they were. This is.a very mild sort of story, but there is a refreshing coolness about it that makes it remarkable. Of course, the man ought to have *been horribly frightened and the horse killed, but that was, exactly what did not happen. ' Oswell, uie great hunterho was the Selousof his dayhad a more unpleasant experience of a somewhat similar character. Awakened one morning with the news that a lioness and her cubs were drinking at a neighbouring spring, he rod© off to reconnoitre with a few Kaffirs and some dogs. The dogs brought the lioness to bay, and Oswell got within 20 yards of her without being able to see her, owing to the thickness of the bush. Suddenly the dogs ceased barking, and there was a roar on the horse's right quarter, and, clearing a' high bush, the lioness appeared, coming full charge - with her mouth open. his was awkward for OsI well, as you cannot shoot to the right unless ' you are left-handed, and he did the only thing he could in trying to gallop off. But before he could get up speed he heard the lioness strike the ground twice in her bound, and the next moment she sat up behind him. Fortunately, she failed to hold on with her mouth, and away went tho horse with her hanging on to him by her claws. Tho horse, mad with fright, threw up his head, and swerved under the bough of a tree, which struck Oswell on the chest and swept him from the saddue against the lioness. They rolled on to the ground together ; Oswell was stunned, the lioness went for the dogs, and, at a trot, ran off. And the horse ran away for four miles, to bo then caught and have his wounds sewn up, but he was never fit for anything again. ...... This was in South Africa just north of the Matappo 50 years ago, in. the heart of what was then the lion country. The lion is mainly an African animal; it is found all over that continent, the North African lions being the fiercest on record ; hence, nearly all the lion stories come from Africa, and most of the remarkable ones from Algeria by way of the French. , But an instance of coolness in danger it would be difficult to beat the story told by Frederick Selous, who accompanied Rooi.ivelt into Africa, of the native at Mauraka's kraal. In the middle of an August night a lioness walked into the camp past the outside fires, and, disregarding the two while men who were covered by their blankets, gripped a native who was alongside the fire in the middle of the tamp. She carried him off a short distance into the darkness, where she gave him some terrible bites about the head and arm. The man had shouted when he was seized, and this awoke the camp, but when some of the white men came near him with a lantern he was sufficiently master of himself to call out, " Don't shoot now, the lioness is lying on me." /■• - This was translated by the interpreter. Presently he again spoke and said, Now fire; she's standing up over me." Three shots .were then ..sent into her, wounding her badly, and.she moved off, to be killed next morning) her victim dying a few hours afterwards. / ""' , Livingstone was cool enough when the lion was standing over him— is to say, if we take Oswell's account of the famous misadventure, and assuredly none could have known better, for he .heard it at, first hand and soon after it occurred. " The story '"■ of the accident'," : he says, was fresh with him and the Kaffirs when we reached Mabotse. A lion had killed

an ox near the village, and the Bakalla turned out, as they always did when the lion deserted his game and attacked their herds. Each man, as is usual in a hunt of this kind, carried two or three assegais and a plume of ostrich feathers on a painted six-foot stick. "The lion was tracked to his sleepingplace, and the men made a ring around it, gradually closing the; space between man and man as they advanced. Presently, the quarry was roused and sat up, and then a spearman, taking a few steps in advance, threw his assegai. The thrower is generally charged, but tho animal's attention is immediately taken off by a second spearman and second assegai, and so on until,/poor beast, it is killed. , " Accidents seldom occur in fairly open ground, as the men support one another very coolly and effectively. In rocky places the sport is dangerous. Sometimes, however, even in favourable spots, the man is pressed closely by the beast, and he then, as he runs, plants the stick with the plume firmly in the ground and dodges away from it. "" '/"/.: - In Livingstone's case they had lost the lion after wounding it, and were looking for it ; the dear old doctor caught sight of its tail twitching backward and forward. Up and off went a gun that would hardly have killed a strong rabbit. " Livingstone was spun over eight or ten feet, and the lion was standing over him. The brute took his arm in its mouth and put a heavy paw on the nape of his neck, irom which' he pushed it off, for, as he said, ' It was so heavy, man, and I don't like to bo stamped: on.' Neither did he ! The lion was then driven off and killed. " Livingstone was so quite and imperturbable that he would have made a capital sportsman, but he could neither shoot nor ride (except on ox-back), this was not his business. I am afraid he despised the role of a sportsman. He could talk to the Kaffirs' ears and hearts, we only to their stomachs."