The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1912-03-07


undertook to transfer the lioness
from our bamboo cage to another
cage, on railway car. My Dutch
partners started back to the bush, as
we did not consider it necessary for
them to stay.
Our ropes were still attached to her
body, and putting my boys on these,
I had them haul in three directions
while I opened the bamboo cage,
punched the brute out into the open
on the side next to the car, and got
her head toward the car door.
To hasten her movements 1 threw
my weight against her from the rear,
as 1 had often done before in similar
cases, at the same time shouting to
my boys on one side to ease up on
their ropes. With one shove thought
I could get her through the gate and
snap it shut. But the boys misun-
derstood my order, and all of them
on one side dropped their ropes. This
left the lioness secured in only one
direction, and the strain from the
ropes on that side brought her up
against the side of the car and pre-
vented her from getting through the
door,
Half turning, she knocked me off
the gang-plank, between the car and
the donkey cart, then leaped down af-
ter me, pinning me to the ground.
For several seconds she stood across
me, licking my face with her tongue,
which was so like rasp that l could
feel it scraping the skin away. |
could hear the boys shouting in their
native tongue, "The lion has killed
the chief" and, from the sound of
their voices, I knew that they were
running away in terror.
Selling me in her teeth, the lioness
swung me partially across her shoul-
der and tried to make off, but the
ropes were secured on one side and
stopped her with jolt that made
her furious. With roar that SEEM
ed to make the earth tremble she
Topped me against the ground, again
threw herself across me, and began
to chew my side.
had read and heard that man
did not feel the pain when being
chewed by a lion-that stupor, pa
ralysis through fear, or whatever you
call it, deadened the pain-but this
was not true in my case. I could feel
every movement of her jaws and
teeth as she sank them in my side,
biting through the ribs as rat would
crush an eggshell, tearing the flesh
away, snarling and making a pecu-
liar smacking noise as she got the
taste of blood.
I was fully alive to the pain, which
was so frightful as to make me wish
she would finish the job in hurry.
My mind was working all the time
and saying in way: There goes
another rib. She has reached the lung
now. There, that bite has penetrated
the pleural cavity. I wonder how
much longer-oh, how much longer" ."
1 thought 1 could hear kettle
drum-pom, poh, pom, poh-another
kettle drum-many kettle drums
their noise grew deafening. The
breast of the lioness was against my
face. 1 could get the odor of her
body-a sickening odo". She appear
ed to be getting larger-to my mind
she was growing; she became as large
as ten lions; her body expanded un-
til it appeared to cover the whole
land-and all the time the din of the
kettle drums kept up.
l had a pistol at my right hip, but
could not reach it. had every reason
to be fortified against just such a di-
lSmud. Oue VI LILY lOl u1Ol pal luSl .
had been dragged from my side in
bed and eaten by lion. I had also
seen one Of my boys slashing lion
across the face with knife while he
was being chewed, and we were un-
able to shoot the lion for fear of
killing the boy. A lion had also
taken a boy out of wagon where l
was sleeping one night, and devoured
him almost under my nose. These
things had set me thinking. l had
lain awake nights wondering what l
would do in a similar predicament,
and l had resolved on carrying a
spare Lueger pistol in my boot.
Bear in mind things had been hap
pening very quickly around me. l
presume had not been on the ground
more than a minute-perhaps not
half a minute-although it seemed
like an age to me, before l could get