Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 7, 2025
"'No, my poor fellow, I am not much hurt. "'Ow! I am glad. "Then came a long silence, broken only by the sound of the air whistling through the hole in his lung as he breathed. "'Macumazahn, art thou there? I cannot feel thee. "'I am here, Mashune. "'I die, Macumazahn the world flies round and round. I go I go out into the dark!
I cannot describe the intensity of the quiet of the night: to me in my weak state, and fretting as I was over the non-return of the Hottentot Hans, it seemed almost ominous as though Nature were brooding over some tragedy which was being enacted in her sight. "It was quiet quiet as death, and lonely as the grave. "'Mashune, I said at last, 'where is Hans? my heart is heavy for him.
About twenty paces from the little skerm was a large ant-heap, and on the summit of the ant-heap, her four feet rather close together, so as to find standing space, stood the massive form of a big lioness. Her head was towards the skerm, and in the bright moonlight I saw her lower it and lick her paws. "Mashune thrust the Martini rifle into my hands, whispering that it was loaded.
Surely, my father, at times in days to come thou wilt think of Mashune who stood by thy side when thou killest elephants, as we used as we used "They were his last words, his brave spirit passed with him.
"Meanwhile Mashune employed himself in dragging together some dead boughs from the mimosa trees to make a sort of 'skerm, or shelter for us to sleep in, about forty yards from the edge of the pool of water.
"'Hark to it! sung out Mashune in Zulu, more, I fancy, by way of keeping his spirits up than for any other reason for he was a sort of black Mark Tapley, and very cheerful under difficulties. We are hungry now, my father; our stomachs are small and withered up like a dried ox's paunch, but they will soon be full of good meat.
"Mashune was still living, but a single glance at him told me that his hour had come. The buffalo's horn had driven a great hole in his right lung, and inflicted other injuries. "I knelt down beside him in the uttermost distress, and took his hand. "'Is he dead, Macumazahn? he whispered. 'My eyes are blind; I cannot see. "'Yes, he is dead. "'Did the black devil hurt thee, Macumazahn?
We had been greatly troubled with lions in the course of our long tramp, and only on the previous night have very nearly been attacked by them, which made me nervous, especially in my weak state. Just as we had finished the skerm, or rather something which did duty for one, Mashune and I heard a shot apparently fired about a mile away.
"'Nay, my father, I know not; mayhap he is weary, and sleeps, or mayhap he has lost his way. "'Mashune, art thou a boy to talk folly to me? I answered. 'Tell me, in all the years thou hast hunted by my side, didst thou ever know a Hottentot to lose his path or to sleep upon the way to camp?
But all this took a little time, and before the paper was satisfactorily arranged, Mashune again gripped me by the arm, and pointed to a dark heap under the shade of a small mimosa tree which grew not more than ten paces from the skerm. "'Well, what is it? I whispered; 'I can see nothing. "'It is another lion, he answered.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking