1

^hoot the beast, when amazement and dismay got

hold upon us, for close at hand was a lion stealthily

stalking the crocodile. We diverted ourselves with

this strange sight for a length of time, when sudden-

ly the lion sprang and seized the unclean brute

by the neck; the crocodile writhed and lashed fur-

iously with its tail and then lay dead upon the

ground. At this spectacle our wonderment in-

creased, and we called upon God to guard us from

all evil. Then my companion wished to shoot the

lion, but I forbade him., saying, that, as he could

not himself slay a crocodile by biting it in the

neck, so I would shoot the man who destroyed

the creature that could. We then approached the

crocodile of which the bulk was so vast that, when I

bestrode it, my feet but scarcely touched theground. We took its musk and, as the shades of evening

where now lengthening into night, we stayed

where we were at no great distance from the croco-

dile, intending to renew the chase on the following

day. But ever through the dark watches of the

night there moved and mouthed the prowling

lions which had collected to devour the dead brute :

sleep was far from our eyes by reason of the dis-

turbance that they created, now wailing, now

growling, or again challenging the very skies with

their awe-inspiring roars. With the first streak of

early dawn the noises were hushed, and we plucked

up courage to see what had befallen during the

night. And when wc had drawn near the crocodile,