Part 14 (1/2)
”No,” replied Swinton; ”I had a great deal more to say, and I shall be very happy at any seasonable time, Major, to tell you what I know--but not just now”
”My dear fellow,” said the Major, putting another piece of elephant-steak upon Swinton's plate, ”pray don't entertain the idea that I want you to talk on purpose that I may eat your share and my own too; only ascribe ht I have in receiving instruction and amusement from you”
”Well, Swinton, you have extorted a compliment from the Major”
”Yes, and an extra allowance of steak, which is a better thing,” replied Swinton, laughing ”Now I have finished my breakfast, I will tell what I know about Oinally a Hottentot race--of that I think there is little doubt; but I believe they are a race of people produced by circumstances, if I may use the expression The Hottentot on the plains lives a no upon his herds The Bushman may be considered as the Hottentot driven out of his fertile plains, deprived of his cattle, and compelled to resort to the hills for his safety and subsistence--in short, a Hill Hottentot: ier and by injuries, he has committed depredations upon the property of others until he has had a ainst every man, and he has been hunted like a wild beast, and compelled to hide himself in the caves of aleneration after generation, he has suffered privation and hunger, till the race has dwindled down to the sainst force, his only weapons have been his cunning and his poisoned arrows, and with them he has obtained his livelihood--or rather, it may be said, has contrived to support life, and no more There are, however, many races ht froascar, Malays, and even those of the mixed white breed, when they have committed murder or other penal crimes, have added to the race and incorporated themselves with them; they are called the Children of the Desert, and they are literally such”
”Have you seen much of them?”
”Yes, when I was in the Nareat deal of them I do not think that they are insensible to kindness, and moreover, I believe that they reat risk”
”Have they ever shown any gratitude?”
”Yes; when I have killed game for them, they have followed me on purpose to show me the pools of waters without which we should have suffered severely, if we had not perished We were talking about lions; it is an old-received opinion, that the jackal is the lion's provider; it would be a more correct one to say that the lion is the Bushman's provider”
”Indeed!”
”I once asked a Bushman, 'How do you live?' His reply was, 'I live by the lions' I asked him to explain to me He said, 'I will shohat I do: I let the lions follow the game and kill it and eat till they have their bellies full, then I go up to where the lion is sitting down by the carcass, and I go pretty near to hiot there, can not you spare me some of it? Go away and let me have some meat, or I'll do you some harm Then I dance and jump about and shake my skin-dress, and the lion looks at rowls very much, but he don't stay, and then I eat the rest'”
”And is that true?”
”Yes, I believe it, as I have had it confessed by erous when he is hungry--that is, if he is not attacked; and if, as the Bushman said, the lion has eaten sufficiently, probably not wishi+ng to be disturbed, after his repast, by the presence and shouts of the Bushman, the animal retires to some other spot I was informed that a very short time afterward, this Bushman, who told me what I have detailed to you, was killed by a lioness, when atte as he was used to do The fact was, that he perceived a lioness devouring a wild horse, and went up to her as usual; but he did not observe that she had her whelps with her: he shouted; she growled savagely, and before he had ti upon him and tore him to pieces”
”The lion does not prey upon enerally; but the Namaqua people told me that, if a lion once takes a fancy to er devoured one or two--they becoa the truth, although it is very probable”
”If we judge froers in India, it is well known, if they once taste human flesh, prefer it to all other, and they are well known to the natives, who tere to say, it appears that human flesh is not wholesoy after they have taken to eating that alone I have shot a 'man-eater' from the back of an elephant, and I found that the skin was not worth taking”
”The Namaquas,” replied Swinton, ”told me that a lion, once enamored of human flesh, would, in order to obtain it so far overcoh a fire to seize a man I once went to visit a Namaqua chief, who had been severely wounded by a lion of this description--a avedreadful narrative, which certainly corroborates what they assert of the lion who had once taken a fancy to huone out with a party of his uays On the first day, as they were pursuing an elephant, they caed to save their lives by abandoning a horse, which the lions devoured They then -places of thick bushes by a pool, where they knew the elephant and rhinoceros would come to drink
”As they fired at a rhinoceros, a lion leaped into their inclosure, took up one of the men in his mouth and carried him off, and all that they afterward could find of hiht, as they were sitting by a fire inside of their inclosure of bushes, a lion cah the fire, and tore out his back One of the party fired, but rowled at the men across the fire, and they durst not repeat the shot; the lion then took up his prey in his mouth, and went off with it
”Alarether in one strong inclosure, and at night sent out one of the slaves for water He had no sooner reached the pool than he was seized by a lion; he called in vain for help, but was dragged off through the woods, and the next day his skull only was found, clean licked by the rough tongue of the lion
”Having now lost three men in three days, the chief and his whole party turned out to hunt and destroy lions only They followed the spoor or track of the one which had taken the slave, and they soon found two lions, one of which, the s taken their breakfast, they went after the other, and largest, which was recognized as the one which had devoured the man
”They followed the animal to a patch of reeds, where it had intrenched itself; they set fire to the reeds and forced it out, and as it alking off it was severely wounded by one of the party, when it iht through the s the out his ribs and exposing his lungs
”The chief rushed to the assistance of his expiring brother; his gun burned pri He dashed it down, and in his desperation seized the lion by the tail The lion let go the body, and turned upon the chief, and with a stroke of his fore-paw tore a large piece of flesh off the chief's arround The chief rose instantly, but the lion then seized hiling his left ar, the chief in a feeble voice called to his men to shoot the animal from behind, which was at last done with a ball which passed through the lion's brain After this destruction of four iven over; the body of the chief's brother was buried, and the party went ho with them their wounded chief”