Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1888-04-11
CHAPTER III.

"Poor Jim-Jim Weburied what was left
of him, which was not very much, in an old
bread bag, and though whilst he lived his
virtues were not great, now that he was gone
we could have wept over him. Indeed, Harry
did weep outright; while I registered quiet
little VOW on my own account that would
let daylight into that ioness before was 4S
hours older, if by any means it could be done.
"We buried him and there he lies where
the lions will not trouble him any more. So
there is an end Of the book Of Jim-Jim.
"The question that now remained was how
to circumvent his murderess. knew that
she would be sure to return as soon as she
would be hungry again, but did not know
when she would be hungry. She had left so
little Of Jinl-Jim behind her that I should
scarcely expect to see her the next night,
unless indeed she had cubs Still, I felt
that it would not be wise to miss the
chance Of her coming, so we set about max
ing preparations for her reception. The first
thing that we did was to strengthen the bush
wall Of the skerm by dragging large guam
tity Of the tops Of thorn trees together and
laying them one on the other in such fashion
thas the thorns pointed upwards. This, after
our experience Of the fate of Jim-Jim, seemed
very necessary precaution, since If where
one sheep can jump another can follow, as
the Kafirs say, how much more is this the
case where an animal SO active and so vigor-
GUS as the lion is concerned! And now came
the further question, how were we to beguile
the lioness to returnl Lions are animals that
have strange knack of appearing when they
are not wanted, and keeping studiously out
of the way when their presence is required.
Harry, who, as have said, was an emf
nently practical boy, suggested to Pharaoh
that he should 60 and sit outside the skerm in
the moonlight as sort Of bait, assuring him
that he would have nothing to fear, as we
would certainly kill the lioness before she
killed him. Pharaoh, however, strangely
enough, did not seem to take to this suggestion.
Indeed, he walked away, much put out with
Harry for having made it.
1T gave me an idea, however.
"'Well, l said, there is that OK. He must
die sooner or later, so we may as we'll utilize
him
'Now, about thirty yards to the left of our
skerm, if one stood facing down the hill to-
ward the river, was the stump of tree that
had been destroyed by lightning many years
before, standing equidistantly between, but
a little in front Of, two clumps Of bush,
which were severally some fifteen PAGES
from it.
Here was the very place to tie the OK; and
accordingly little before sunset the poor
animal was led forth by Pharaoh and made
fast there, little knowing, poor brute, for
what purpose; and we commenced our long
vigil, this time without fire. for our object
was to attract the lioness and not to scare
her.
''For hour after hour we waited, keeping
ourselves awake by pinching each other-it
is, by the way, remarkable what difference
in the force of pinches requisite to the occa-
sion exists in the mind of pincher and
pinchee-but no lioness came. The moon
waxed and the moon waned, and then at last
the moon went down, and darkness swal-
lowed up tho world, but no lion came to
swallow us up. We waited till dawn, because
we did not dare to so to sleep, and then at
last we took such rest as we could get.
THAT morning we went out shooting; not
because we wanted to, for we were too de-
pressed and tired, but because we had no
more meat For three hours or more we
wandered about in q broiling sun looking
for something to kill, but absolutely with no
results For some unknown reason the
game had grown very scarce about the spot,
though when was there two years before
every sort of large game except rhinoceros
and elephant was particularly abundant.
The lions, of whom there were many, alone
remained, and 1 fancy it was the fact Of the
game they live on having temporarily mi
grated that made them so daring and fero-
cious. AS general rule lion is an amiable
animal enough if he is let alone, but
hungry lion is almost as dangerous as
hungry man. One hears great many diff
ferent opinions expressed as to whether or
no the lion is remarkable for his courage,
but the result of my experience is that very
much depends upon the state of his stomach.
A hungry lion will not stick at trife,
whereas a full one will flee at a very small
rebuke.
"Well, we hunted all about and nothing
could we see, not even duck or bush buck,
and at last, thoroughly tired and out of tenn
per, we started on our way back to camp,
passing over the brow Of steepish hill to do