74 Seven Years in the Soudan.

months, and the poor wretches were about to abandon the place, when some people from Dongola passed that way to purchase ivory. Having heard about the lion, six Dongolese lay in wait for him, and when the lion passed quietly along, as usual, he was saluted by a volley of six shots. He gave one leap, and fell dead. This lion had attained an extraordinary size, and his mane was so long as almost to touch the ground ; his skin, they told me, had been sent to the Khedive. I had occasion to speak to a certain man who took a principal part in this adventure. He was an old hunter, considered one of the bravest of his profession, a great slayer of elephants, lions, and buffaloes, and the guide of all the hunters who came into those parts. The various certificates, of which he was the possessor, proved him to be an honest man and intrepid hunter.

" For forty years," he said, " I have been hunting between Gabe-Shambc and the Sandeh. Many lions have fallen to my gun, and I have seen many others, but never one so large as this." According to his description and the measurements which he noted, this lion must have been something monstrous. I had never imagined that a lion could attain such a size.

The lion soon grows old ; at the age of twelve years his teeth are worn out, and he has no longer the speed and agility necessaiy to seize the young buffaloes and the tetal whom he lies in wait for near the river when they descend to drink. It is then, when the lion is reduced to impotence, that he attacks man.

Near Kaka a lion was killed, which for some time was complete master of the road, and many natives had paid a dear tribute to this new kind of marauder. When he was killed glass beads were found in his stomach, such as the people of the place are accustomed to wear. Each time that a lion, a man-hunter, was taken,