MAN THROTTLES A LIONESS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18445, 5 January 1922, Page 2

MAN THROTTLES A LIONESS

Details have been rocerivod in London of a wonderful feat performed by a member of the South African Constabulary in the Northern Transvaal. He was on patrol when a party of Boers trekking down the road showed him a lion cub which they had just captured, and warned him to.be careful as the lioness was near by and'not in the best of tempers. The officer rod© on and came upon spoor, which he followed for some 50 yards into a bush. Here ; he was faced by a lion, which looked like charging, so without hesitation ho drew a ‘bead on him and shot him dead. The next moment a lioness sprang at him from cover, and seizing his right forearm in her teeth, she dragged him from hia horse. His rifle was jerked out of hia reach, and broken, and so he had to fight his aggressor unarmed and with only one hand. He saw that his only chance was to suffocate her, and this ho tried to do by grasping her nostrils so that she would have to open her mouth, to release him. There was a desperate struggle between them, but he kept his end up, and fought with desperation for his life. In the struggle they gradually worked back on to the road, whero they were seen fighting by a man riding by, who galloped off to the neatest police post a couple of miles away to get help. When the police arrived on the scene they found their comrade lying insensible under a thick thornbush on one side of the road, and the lioness, too weary to move, on the opposite side. The man explained that he had throttled the lioness and kicked it in the stomach so thoroughly that she gave in and let him go. He knew, however, that ho was near the limit of endurance, and crept under the bush to gain some kind of protection in case of her’ coming on again. His arm was simply a pnlp, and had to bo amputated then and there, with the result that eventually he succumbed to hia injuries.