Evening star., 1909-05-02

Ashur, As head shikari. Besides being an
agreeable companion, he is far and away
the best finder of game 1 have ever seen
in the country. His pluck is undenlaoie
and the only difficulty l have had with
him is to prevent him going where L did
not care to go myself. This may sound
exaggerated praise of native, but among
other things he grappled lion which had
knocked me down, being severely mauled
before he got the brute Off so that l nat
urally entertain very high opinion or
him. Owing to his skill in tracking l 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 as any one
who has shot lions knows how difflcult IL
often is to recover wounded beast WIFI
out dogs.
l only once had the help of dogs after
wounded lions We were camped down
in the Haud among the Eidegall villages
under Sultan Deria. One day l went out
TO try to get some meat for the natives,
ACCOMPANIED by a warrior called Hassan
and his pony I had just shot an oryx,
and we were cutting 1t UP, when the
smallest Somali I have ever seen came
five lions asleep under a tree close by.
This man belonged to the ioW-caste trlpe
of Midgans-people who do not live 10,
gether in one tribe, but are scattered all
where they are chiefly engaged in killing
antelope for meat. other Somal1s. as
rule. thinking 1t below their dignity 10 90
anything but go out occasionally on looI-
ing expeditions. Midgans are armed with
bows and poisoned arrows. and each or
them carries knife. Until quite la!eiy
no other Somalf would use DOW put
now It is quite common thing 10 meet
native belonging to another tribe VINO mas
discarded his spears for bow and CULVER
Of poisoned arrows.
Lions are occasionally killed by Mid
rans, but the poison on the arrows can
not be very strong, as frequently aiter
being sick two or three times the hon
seems to recover and get away. capt.
Swayne gives an account OF the way IN
which these Midgans hunt the oryx with
their dogs But to get on with my stors.
The little Midgan carried bow nearv
as long as himself and was followed by
about a dozen small native dogs win
curly sterns and prick ears. THESE niue
ours were wonderfully broken. The man
trotted off in front of US. and When ne
got near the place where he had seen the
lions he simply put out his hand ana an
the dogs lay down In bunch ana never
attempted to follow on after US. Tnen we
stalked carefully toward a big thorn tree
rising above the bush. This was where
the lions were said to be. The bush was
very open. and when we came IN slsht or
the tree the lions were just decamplng
There were four of them. not fve-an OLD
lIoness and three lions, perhaps not quite
full grown and with very little name.
Hassan had followed close behind on
hts pony. so I shouted to him to try 10
0ySd
myself with Abdulla after one OF the
lions. This one did not seem much IN
clined 10 run and after short burst l
managed to get a bullet into MIN some
where just as he disappeared into some
thick bushes.
At that moment we caught sight OF an
other lion trotting along parallel to us
about 200 yards off The wounded one
was keeping up continuous low growl-
ing in the bushes. so. thinking he would
not get far away. we ran to cut on the
other He turned off when he caught
sight of us and we had long stern chase
after him. as a result of which l was so
blown 7 could not hit him. although he
was lobbing along not more than 1oo
yards ahead. At last / did get bullet
into his flank. He at once turned and,
growing fiercely, came bounding few
Yards toward us, as If trying to make
up his mind to charge. Whether he
would have done or not do not know.
as my second barrel caught him on the
point OF the shoulder. bringing him onto
his nose and before he could recover
himself 7 put in another bullet from my
second rifle and finished him.
II is more than likely he would not
lave charged. as have several times
seen lion make this kind of demon
stration when slightly hit. more. l think.
10 try to frighten his assaiant than any
thing else A lion that really means
charging UP comes quite silently, gall
Looping very fast along the ground, like
dog.
While this was going on we could hear