really funny. The little
beggars would stalk me, crouching and approaching for all the world like
a kitten about to make a pounce upon a cork, or some other plaything;
then they would make a sudden rush, stand on their hind legs for an
instant, touching me hurriedly with their paws, and scamper home to
their mother, or behind some rock or tuft of grass, from which they
would presently emerge to creep towards me once more; and so the whole
play would begin again.

They never once hurt me or scratched me, or did me the slightest injury.
I concluded that the father had already fed the little brutes, and that
I was to be respited for an hour or two, perhaps half a day. This was
satisfactory in a fashion, but just imagine the suspense!

Her majesty the lioness, however, was not pleased, it appears, with the
behaviour of her children. She roared once or twice.

'You are meant to eat it,' she seemed to say, 'you foolish little
things, not play with it. Here, come along and taste, it's good food.
Stick your little teeth into it--look here.'

She approached me and rolled me over once or twice as a cat might play
with a mouse. 'Look for a soft place and then bite,' she continued.
'I'll show you the way.'

'No you don't!' thought I, desperate now and careless of consequences. I
fumbled for my skinning-knife, and made a dig at her majesty, but only
succeeded in scratching her about the shoulder. She gave a roar of
alarm, however, and bounded away into cover. The four cubs disappeared
instantly.

From somewhere in the long grass, where she hid unseen with her cubs,
the lioness now began to growl or moan, complaining, I had no doubt,
that I had bitten her and that it was obviously the duty of her lord and
master to see that such a venomous creature as myself was rendered
harmless before her precious darlings came near it again.

'Go in and finish him off,' she said. 'He might hurt one of them. He has
bitten me.'

Apparently her complaint told. His majesty began to grow restless. He
stood up. He had lain down at full length to watch the children play,
but now he rose up and began to work himself into a rage. His tail
lashed his sides, and his jaws moved incessantly; he showed his teeth
and growled savagely and roared. I knew enough about lions to be aware
that as long as his tail worked from side to side I was safe; once it
began to move vertically up and down, the moment had arrived when he
would charge. I rose to my knees,