Chapmaiis Travels in South Africa 221 



" In some parts, indeed, the natives do not kill either lions, wolves, or wild 

 dogs, regarding these animals as hunters of game which they turn to their own 

 account." — (vol. i., p. 93.) 



On the other hand, the Uons sometimes look upon the natives 

 from the same stand-point of their own advantage, treating villages 

 of them as private preserves of game. Chapman gives an instance 

 of this in the district where he found them most numerous : — 



" In parting with my cattle, I requested Awraal to permit me to send them 

 on to the extreme eastern boundary of his country, at Elephants' Klof, but he 

 dissuaded me from this project, assuring me that the lions had of late become so 

 daring that no human being could live there. The Damaras and bushmen who 

 had escaped their ferocity had been obliged to remove to a district north-east of 

 this place. The cowardice shewn by these poor people had of late made the 

 lions so bold that nothing but human flesh seemed to satisfy them, nor did their 

 huts, fires, and fences, afford them the slightest protection. Some of Awraal's 

 people who were returning the other day from a giraffe hunt, were assailed by 

 a troop of these daring animals in open daylight. The lions sprang upon the 

 pack-oxen, who ran wildly about under the weight of their rough jockeys, 

 plunging madly until fortunately they had disencumbered themselves of their 

 bundles of meat as well as their rude riders ; the lions contenting themselves, 

 after having a few shots fired at them, with the meat they had seized. Another 

 party of these hunters the same day came upon the carcase of a Damara recently 

 killed and partly eaten, and every night this same party were kept awake or 

 had to make circular fires around them, leaving their dogs to fight off the brutes 

 until daylight. So changeable and uncertain is the character of the lion that in 

 some districts by daylight he is timid as a mouse, and will scarce venture to 

 attack man even by stealth and by night ; but when he comes upon a famished 

 or mean-spirited race, he keeps near a village and treats its inhabitants as though 

 they were his flock of cattle, killing them as hunger urges. A hungry lion is a 

 most daring animal ; there is nothing that he will not dare in broad daylight 

 and in the most impudent manner, driving you off from your own game, or 

 following you up in open ground under every disadvantage to himself. But 

 such cases are rare, and they are generally either driven to it by hunger, past 

 success, or a keen relish for human above all other flesh. The general disposi- 

 tion of a lion, like that of all other animals, is to avoid man, and the districts 

 which he haunts in South Africa being as yet abundantly stocked with game, 

 man seldom becomes his victim." — (vol, i., p. 420.) "The natives, too, assert 

 that lions and all other beasts of prey are more daring when the men are away 

 from their houses and villages, which they soon smell out." — (vol. ii., p. 303.) 



Mr Chapman passes the different species of rhinoceros in review, 

 and gives his opinion as to their distinctness. He is inclined to 

 admit two species of white rhinoceros, in which we think the 

 majority of naturalists will not concur. 



Among the rare animals met with by him, the water buck (the 



