274 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



they found the poor girl, minus all the small amount 

 of clothing which usually formed her full dress, sob- 

 bing and wailing pitifully. Her story was this — 

 " When my man returned with the food and pot 

 which the white men gave him, we made a small fire 

 and cooked and ate it, and then lay down to sleep in 

 the shelter of a bush. We had only a very small fire, 

 as we were afraid to make a larger one for fear of 

 attracting attention. I was cold and did not sleep, 

 but my man slept. When the night was very black 

 I saw an animal prowling round us. Starting up, I 

 shook my man, crying out, ' Awake ! awake ! here is 

 a hyaena.' At the same instant the beast rushed 

 upon us, and seizing my man by the head, dragged 

 him away. I still thought it was a hya?na, and 

 seizing my man's knobkerry, rushed after him into 

 the darkness. My man never cried out nor spoke. 

 When I was close upon the beast that I still thought 

 was a hyasna, I saw by its size and the long hair on 

 its head and shoulders that it was a lion. Then my 

 heart died, and I did not strike it, but, dropping the 

 knobkerry, ran through the river and up to the white 

 men's houses ; and it was only when I got close to 

 them that I was able to cry out." The next morn- 

 ing Messrs. Brown, Phillips, Walsh, Dr. Bradshaw, 

 and a few Boers that were there, followed up the lion, 

 and shot it close to the remains of the unfortunate 

 man. The bereaved girl returned to her friends in 

 the Matabele country, and last year I heard that one 

 of the king's brothers had taken her to wife. A 

 popular error concerning the lion is that it is a very 

 clean feeder, and never eats the flesh of any animal 

 that it has not killed itself. The South African lion 

 is often a very foul feeder, and according to my ex- 

 perience, prefers eating game that has been killed by 



