This episode from Edward Fao book.


I proceed to the village of Kamsikiri, on the Ponfi, where the lion has been reported to me, arriving there in the evening. The chief tells me that he has received orders and that there are many men ready to set out with me in the morning. The lion, which has already on his conscience the deaths of two women, a man, and some dogs, continues the series of his exploits that very night. The night is as black as pitch, and he profits by it to break open the low roof of a hut, and after having killed the five goats inside, eats one of them on the spot, being unable to carry it off. He does all this without the least noise. All the goats are bitten either on the neck or on the withers, but nowhere else, from which it is evident that the lion has been only playing with them. His lair is situated a short distance.

from the village, and the natives have made two “battues” without seeing him in the dense beds of reeds where he hides. In the morning I observe that out of eighty men seventy-two haVe cap-guns. My first impulse is not to accompany them, because I know that kind of “ battue ”; it was not the first at which I had assisted, and I was determined that the former occasion was to be the last. I have asked the men to leave their weapons at the village ; but they have answered, naturally, that they need them in case of danger, a reason which seems very just at first but is worth nothing when one reflects on the use to which the blacks are capable of putting their weapons. Their first movement upon meeting a lion at bay, face to face, is to throw down their guns or to take to their heels, or, if they fire, to fire in haste, without putting their guns to the shoulder, and thus missing to a certainty. They have not even an idea of using the butt, so that a gun in their hands is as much good as a reed-pipe. For the very reason of their inferiority through lack of preparation, it is certain that these people have much merit in attacking, half-naked—one might say, weaponlcss—a redoubtable animal; but an assagai is ten times better for them, because it is their natural weapon, and they are all accustomed to use it. Their instinct to defend themselves would accomplish the rest, and the lion would be riddled by well-directed assagais. That is what happens in regions where powder is rare; but at Makanga, where there is not a man who has not a gun in view of war, they would not miss such an excellent opportunity to make use of it, and it is hardly probable that amid such circumstances they would leave their rifles at home to take their assagais. As I just said, my first impulse is to refuse to accompany this badly disciplined band, but it would not be very easy to make them understand my real reasons. Besides, I shall succeed perhaps in organising the “battue.” With this object I explain to my men by demonstration on the spot that I desire them to form themselves into the shape of a horse-shoe, at the toe of which I shall place myself; and that, should the lion be found to be in the middle, they must join the two branches of the horse-shoe to close the opening, and turn away from me so as to allow the animal an exit in the middle of which I shall alone be stationed. I advise them, also, only to fire in case of legitimate defence, and above all when nobody is in front of them. This being well understood, we proceed to the place where the animal is supposed to be : in fact, we recognise tracks there. Then the men silently spread themselves out as has been arranged, around the bed of reeds. Ten tom-toms which the chief has thought well to add, which prudently keep behind the heaters, along whose line they are scattered, beat with redoubled blows. The first ten minutes pass without event; but the men on the left soon cry out, and we understand that the animal has been seen. As it is said to be going forward—that is, in the same direction as ourselves—I stop them for a moment, and, leaving my post, run rapidly outside the line of men to the opening of the horse-shoe in order to see the animal, if it continues to advance. I make the heaters close up. My men, scattered among the natives, make them carry out my orders; Tambarika alone accompanies me. Up to the present all is well. At a certain spot the reeds are overhung by lianas and large trees, with the result that everybody is in the midst of dense vegetation: we are in semidarkness, and it is at this very moment that the lion tries to break the line to the right. Im— mediately gun-shots come from that side; then it is reported that the lion comes from the left, and the men on the left fire. Soon the uproar becomes indescribable. The cloud of smoke which has collected prevents one seeing; cries and reports prevent one hearing; and the roaring of the lion increases the general disorder. The mélée is complete: one might think oneself on a battlefield. At this moment my sense of humour gets the better of me, and I am seized with a fit of laughter to think of all those idiots who hear nothing and do not know even what they are doing. But I soon finish laughing. Bullets come whistling above my head, by my side, everywhere; and a piece of iron passing with a dry noise near my ear strikes the trunk of a tree, behind which I take shelter immediately with Tambarika. During the space of ten minutes the seventy-two muzzle-loaders are fired, loaded, and again discharged. Two more bullets strike my shelter; others pass by with a prolonged bzz. . . . At last the cries cease, the smoke clears away, and I understand that the hunt is abandoned. My men come to tell me what happened. The lion tried to find an opening at several points of the line time after time, and the shots drove him back. But he took advantage of a breach in the human barrier and escaped by the place we entered, without, apparently, having been wounded. Not so the natives, eleven of whom are wounded, two of them seriously. This is an extraordinarily moderate number, considering that eighty men formed a circle of 50 yards, towards the centre of which they fired, fortunately rather high, from all points of the circumference during a quarter of an hour. My men are uninjured, or hardly injured at all, having thrown themselves on their stomachs as soon as the fusillade began. However, Tchigallo has had his hair singed by a shot which was fired point blank a few inches from his head, and Rodzani has sustained a graze on his leg. As to the lion, he runs still, and we have not seen a drop of blood on the track. Had he come up to me I should have no more seen him than I saw my neighbours : the smoke would have prevented me. Such are the advantages—many, as you see—0f a “ battue” with natives armed with guns. I do not mind risking my skin in a good cause; but to be killed foolishly by a stray bullet, to fall a victim to the rifle of a native who makes a mistake, would be too ridiculous. I have handled firearms continually, day and night, without accident ever happening to me, a fact which is owing to great precautions on my part and to similar habits which I have taught those who accompany me. I do not allow them to carry on their shoulders a rifle with hammers at full-cock, which would endanger the lives of those who follow, and I require that a loaded rifle should be carried always on the shoulder in the normal position—that is, with the butt in front. I cannot censure too much the habit which natives have, and some Europeans tolerate, of carrying a rifle with its butt behind, under the pretext that the weapon is better balanced. Leaving out of consideration the fact that perspiration from the hand rusts the barrels, if, unfortunately, the hammers are at full-cock a branch is quite sufficient when on the march to discharge the weapon. And then let those who are in front beware! Have we not enough enemies in Africa already, fever, sickness, anaemia, and animals, without having to fear a violent and unexpected death through the clumsiness of a servant? Let us return to our lion. He was, doubtless, too singed for there to be a chance of again surrounding him. Muzzle-loaders would have had to be left at the village and the assagai would have had to be the only weapon allowed to ensure success. But that was impossible. I gave up the undertaking and left them to get out of their difficulties alone. Since this adventure I have laid down the following conditions each time that I have had to track a maneater: no guns, but clubs, assagais, and arrows, and drums as many as they like. I have said already that natives never attack the lion which lives normally: when they meet it they give way to it: it is usual, on the other hand, to destroy at all cost lions which attack the inhabitants.1 Ileft that work for them to do and overtook my expedition three days later.

I can imagine a scenario playing out like that in the modern world... get enough of these infernal social-media hunting "influencers" and all their corporate sponsors with AR15s together on a hog cull and the result would be much the same...

Sounds like a gangland shootout on the southside of Chicago. Dwandelle and Shandelle each shoot 100 rounds and don’t touch a single rival. Unfortunately they manage to hit a bunch of innocent bystanders. This in a city without a single gun store.

Good reading! Thank you Saeed.

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I love the old books. They say things we couldn't today. Thanks.