there, little knowing, poor brute, for what purpose; and we began our
long vigil, this time without a 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 a difference of opinion
as to the force of pinches requisite to the occasion exists in the
mind of pincher and pinched--but no lioness came. At last the moon
went down, and darkness swallowed up the world, as the Kaffirs say,
but no lions came to swallow us up. We waited till dawn, because we
did not dare to go to sleep, and then at last with many bad thoughts
in our hearts we took such rest as we could get, and that was not
much.

"That morning we went out shooting, not because we wanted to, for we
were too depressed and tired, but because we had no more meat. For
three hours or more we wandered about in a broiling sun looking for
something to kill, but with absolutely no results. For some unknown
reason the game had grown very scarce about the spot, though when I
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 I fancy that it was the fact of the game
they live on having temporarily migrated which made them so daring and
ferocious. As a general rule a lion is an amiable animal enough if he
is left alone, but a hungry lion is almost as dangerous as a hungry
man. One hears a great many different 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 a trifle, whereas a full one will flee
at a very small rebuke.