The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-05-24
LION HUNTING IN AFRICA.
EXCITTxG ADVENTURES OF 4
yPORTSHIN IN SOMIJTLAND.
Capture or Three Out Of Four Iions 4. n
Group-A Lione-- Harmed Ont OF the
bush Two Specimens fiiled ut Might
bv strategy Trails Of Wounded Lions.

NEuNH w
by STRATEGY Trails Of Wounded Lions
Prom he Tddmfnton Nngosine.
SO many men from England and India nov
visit Somaliland :or shooting that tho game Is
continually retrcatinR further and further
from the coast. There nrc still plenty OF
antclopes. leopards. pigs, &c., In fairly acccsi
bic places: hut districts which only n year or
two ago were full Of lions and elephants are
now entirely shot QUITO get anything like
a big bag Of lions one must go TO n tract OF
uudisturbed country.
The Somalis make excellent camp servants.
Ihave always found them wonderfully CHEEKY,
pleasant people to deal with. and for natives
very trustworthy. Only once have | had any
thing stolen, and then the thief was caught by
my head man before I knew It was missing.
The Somali like tho Arab Is nearly always
a gentleman to talk to. but also. like the Arab,
no Is avaricious and g~raspIng In money mat
ters. A Soma!i born and bred In Alden rs n rule
has nothing TO him.
To get good sport in Somaliland the first
thing IL TO find n good shikari. There nrc cx'
cellent men to be found with care and good
luck, but a great many who are absolutely
worthless. In addition TO others. | have al
ways had ono man, Abdulla Ashur, as head sht'
kari. Besides being an agreeable companion,
he is far and away the best finder OF game l
have over seen in the country. Ills pluck ir
unueniaDle, anu tUe only ullllCulbJ 1 hu'p hht
with him Is to prevent him going where |
did not care to 20 myself. This may sound
exaggerated praise of a native, but among
other things he g~rappled q lion which had
knocked me down. being severely mauled be-
fore he got the brute Off, 30 that ! naturally
entertain n very high opinion OF him. Owing
to his ekill in tracking. I have only lost one
wounded lion out of many that were hit. and
that was not his fault, as the blood stopped
almost directly and the ground was nothing
but stones for miles. This speaks for itself,
ss any one who has shot lions knows how diff
fcult It very often is to recover a wounded
beast without dogs.
I only once had the help of dogs after a
wounded lion. In 1893 T and l were
camped down In the Haud among the Eide
gala villages under Sultan Deria. One day /
went out to try TO get some meat for the natives.
accompanied by a warrior called Hassan. on
his pony. I had just shot an oryx. and we
were cutting 1t up. when the smallest Somali
! have ever seen came running up to say he had
Just observed five lions asleep under a tree
close by. This man belonged to the low-caste
tribe of Midgans-people who do not live to-
gether in one tribe. hut are scattered all over
Somaliland In different villages, whore they
are chiefly engaged in killing antelope for
meat, other Somalis as a rule thinking IL be-
OCCASIONALLY r"iis " on looti IN "e expe5diiionSs. MidgSns
are armed with bows and. poisoned arrows.
and each Of them carries a knife; rntii quite lit
now It is quite n common thing to meet n ma
tive belonging to one Of the other tribes who
has discarded HE spears for a bow and CULVER
Lions are occasionally killed by Midgans,
but the poison on the arrows cannot be very
strong. as frequently. after being sick two or
three times. the lion seems to recover and get
Way in V sRIch sw thess M GiGSs "H h nSGto the 0t or sne
with their dogs. But u, get on with my story.
as himself. and was followed by about a dozen
small native dogs with curly sterns and prick
s saoken' rh fSs m 1ltaie trS onFs o %fFf In T front Of ns,
and when, he got near the place where he had
seen. the lions he, simply put out his hand. and
tempted to follow on after us. Then w stalkcd
carefully toward a bis, thorn tree rising above
came'in sight of the tree the lions were just
dveHan old iioness. and three lions perhaps
not quite full gr3wn: an ndov VIII s.h VERY Ii litt lie m Ton
so shouted to him to try to keep his eye on
the lioness., and ran on myself with Abdulia
mitch nfaef p insl nf 5he to ,' runs. and nd's sf Gee ai short ngt b sse@
] managed to get a bullet into him somewhere
Just as he disappeare ed into i so some nt,t this :S bushes Na,na
hundred wards Of: The wounded one was
egay; we ran to cut of the other. He turned
OH Wnbn ITO CHuEilt siSHt. u uo. anu We Huu u
which / was so blown l could not hit him. al
faGaEe ne yards @is a ,ReotaR At at0 iast nG I did m0q get 'nT bull /
let in his hank. lie at once turned. and.
s sG%srd Us fi as Il ;ry fa%s to G @sRe nS Z his se milne, giFa eo
charge. Whether he would have done so or
not ! ID DO mo not n knew e. !, a. ,bs my sb ssiSnd 9 hr,na, rspSS IN
on to his nose. and before he could recover him
self I put d, sn y her, bullet from my second
II is more than likely he would not have
charged. as | haye several times seen q lion
saiiant than anything else. 4 lion that really
Looping very fast along the ground like q dog.
,on While nbau tins was va , going 5,s On we could . D Hom hear . Has ron
off toward the sonnd. When we started the
shouts seemed TO be ,almost, stationary. but as
i we ran ms they ho1,6 gG S. d,T to,S, and fT pyt ,Eo of till at
to go back for the wounded lion. AS we got
near the place where we lad left him we could
ing. dogs barking. and the unm.stakable grunts
II ilon an w snSFy Gi lion s6oul RdSPnhin pGks up we : fHGnd i, the
tho little dogs; The kstt up. an i%nSsss9nt
would make a drive at them. but they were
much too Quick for him with his broken shout
treated to the bush. The little Midgan, and ,
one of my men were close by, yelling with ex-
without hitting one OF the "a x: the lion / took
no more notice OF the dogs, but kept his eyes
b bss 1 sa @s; his 1 n SroEe saw sh e liGe l GSS ]nI sks T
him and l shot him without difficulty. The
%Rlidgan, after calling his dogs, had run on
after us. and had come on the wounded lion.
We skinned this beast. and the little Midgan
rather amused us. as he got so very much an.
noyed because his dogs would not eat some
great chunks of raw lion flesh ho cut or and
offered, TO them. We were on our way to skin
the other lion when we met Hassan looking
rather sorry for himself. lie said that tho
lioness had trotied along quite quietly ut first,
and he had brought her round in a circle 10.
WAr0 the place where he had left MS. riding |
alongside her, and shouting TO let us know
where he was. unluckily she crossed the
track Of the wounded lion. and after smelling
at the blood she became perfectly unmanncc-
able. making or at u gallop and charging him
whenever. he. got In front to try 10 turn her. |
A., last she had gone into thick bush on some
hills, where he had lost her. When we had
skinned the other lion we made a cast To try
70 pick up the fourth, hut could make nothing
OF him never ,goL this lion. although he
killed one OF our donkcys tn" next day.
We had not been back in camp very long when
t came n, saying ho had run across n lion.