THE LION— KING OF BEASTS 



The Hon seems to hate the heat of the noonday sun, 

 for it loves then to he down in the thick bush, or in a 

 cool swamp among the high papyrus, even often partly 

 down in the water itself. It also loves to retreat into 

 caves, well protected from the rays of the sun. In the 

 hot lowlands and lower plateaus of East Africa the manes 

 of the lions are exceedingly poor, a good many having 

 practically no manes at all, while others have a short, 

 tawny-colored mane — a poor trophy indeed. In the cooler 

 regions, however, the manes are sometimes perfectly mag- 

 nificent, covering the neck, more than half of the back, 

 away down over the shoulders, and are dark brown to al- 

 most black in shade. The " black-maned " lion is regarded 

 as the finest trophy, and comparatively few sportsmen are 

 lucky enough to shoot such a one. People have even 

 suggested that there are different species of lions accord- 

 ing to their manes, but as lions with all sorts of manes, 

 but otherwise perfectly alike, inhabit the same localities, 

 this is entirely untenable. 



It is when the lion gets too old to be able to catch game 

 that it takes to " man-eating " and so becomes the terror 

 of the natives in its district. In January, 1910, I met a 

 government official, whom I had visited on my previous trip 

 to Kenia, and who told me of some terrible experiences 

 he had had with a man-eater since then. But before re- 

 lating these, I must tell of an incident which happened on 

 the way to this official's house. 



We had just crossed a river, where we saw fresh 

 lion tracks. As we emerged from the bank of the river, 

 we found a great many Kikuyu beads, often worn by the 

 men of the tribe, strewn on the ground. Not thinking of 



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