56 NATURAL HISTORY iN ANECDOTE.

rose to drive in the ox, the lion had watched him to his
fireside, and he had scarcely lain down, when the brute sprang
upon him and Ruyter (for both lay under one blanket) with
his appalling murderous roar, and roaring as he lay, grappled
him with his fearful claws and kept biting him on-the breast
and shoulder, all the while feeling for his neck; having got
hold of which, he at once dragged him away backwards
round the bush into the dense shade.... The next morning,
just as the day began to dawn we heard the lion dragging
something up the river side under cover of the bank. We
drove the cattle out of the kraal and then proceeded to
inspect the scene of the night’s awful tragedy. In the hollow
where the lion had lain, consuming his prey, we found one
leg of the unfortunate Hendrick, bitten off below the knee,
the shoe still on the foot, the grass and bushes were all
stained with his blood, and fragments of his pea-coat lay
around. Hendrick was by far the best man I had about
my waggons...his loss to us all was very serious.”

A Lion In the southern part of Africa, where the Hot-

Gutwitted. tentots live, lions were very common, and the
adventures of the inhabitants with them very frequent.
One evening a Hottentot saw that he was pursued by a lion.
He was very much alarmed, and devised the following means
of escape. He went to the edge of a precipice, and placed
himself a little below it. He then put his cloak and hat on
a stick, and elevated them over his head, giving them a
gentle motion. The lion came crouching along, and, mistaking
the cloak and hat for the man, as the Hettentot intended
he should do, he sprang upon them with a swift leap, and,
passing over the head of the Hottentot, was plunged head-
long down the precipice.
Old Instincts In the “Miscellany of Natural History,” from

and new which several of these anecdotes are taken there
nef a See ae ate story illustrating the way in which old
instincts will show themselves in the presence of new