48 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES chap. 



dragged away from their camp fires, or even killed 

 in their huts, by hungry lions within recent times. 



As a rule, I think, a lion seizes a sleeping man 

 by the head, and in that case, unless it is a very old 

 and weakly animal, death must be usually in- 

 stantaneous, as its great fang teeth will be driven 

 into the brain through the thickest negro skull. 



I have known of two instances of men having 

 been seized at night by the shoulder. This, I 

 think, is likely to happen to a sleeping man lying on 

 his side with one shoulder raised, especially if his 

 recumbent form should happen to be covered with 

 a blanket, in which case the most prominent part 

 of him would very likely be mistaken by a lion for 

 his head.. 



In the early 'nineties of the last century, two 

 troopers of the British South Africa Company's 

 Police started one afternoon from the neighbourhood 

 of Lo Magondi's kraal to ride into Salisbury, the 

 capital of Mashunaland, a distance of about 

 seventy miles. They rode until dark, and then off- 

 saddling their horses, tied them to a tree, and after 

 having had something to eat and cooked a pot of 

 tea, lay down by the side of the camp fire they had 

 kindled, intending to sleep until the moon rose and 

 then continue their journey by its light. About 

 midnight, however, and when it was very dark, 

 for the moon had not yet risen, a prowling lion 

 came up to their lonely bivouac, and, disregarding 

 their horses, seized one of them by the shoulder 

 and at once dragged him away into the darkness. 

 His companion, awakened by his cries, quickly 

 realised what had happened, and snatching up his 

 rifle, ran to his friend's assistance and fired two or 

 three shots into the air in quick succession. This 

 so startled the lion that it dropped its prospective 

 supper and made off. The wounded man, it was 

 found, had received a severe bite in the shoulder 



