Ill ox KILLED BY LION 6i 



to inflict any wound upon it other than those made 

 when it first seized its victim, and the ground being 

 soft from recent rain, every step taken by both 

 the ox and the lion during the brief struggle 

 was plainly visible. The lion had evidently crept 

 close up to where the ox was lying (within forty 

 yards of my waggon), and had either attacked it 

 where it lay or just as it was rising to its feet. It 

 had not jumped upon its victim, but throughout the 

 struggle had always kept its hind -feet on the 

 ground. The only wounds that had been inflicted 

 on the ox were claw-marks on the nose and on the 

 top of the left shoulder - blade, and the lion had 

 evidently seized it by the muzzle with its left paw 

 and on the top of the shoulder with the right, and 

 had simply held it, pulling its head in towards its 

 chest. The ox had plunged forward, dragging the 

 lion with it for a few yards, and had then fallen 

 with its head twisted right under it and its neck 

 dislocated. Whether the lion had broken the ox's 

 neck by its own strength, or whether the dislocation 

 was due to the way in which it fell ^vith its head 

 twisted in under it, I cannot say; but my experience 

 is that when a single lion tries to kill an ox or a 

 buffalo, it invariably seizes it over the muzzle with 

 one paw, and usually succeeds in either breaking 

 its victim's neck or causing it to break it itself by 

 its own weight in falling. When several lions 

 attack an ox or buffalo, they will often bite and 

 tear it all over and take a long time to kill it. 

 Upon several occasions I have listened to the 

 protracted bellowing of buffaloes being thus mauled 

 to death. Upon one occasion a party of five lions 

 stampeded my oxen as they lay round the waggon, 

 and very soon seized and pulled down one of them. 

 The wretched creature bellowed most fearfully, and 

 must have been suffering terribly. Hastily light- 

 ing torches of long dry grass, several of my Kafirs 



