THE LION 183 



while unarmed and walking along the wagon trail to his 

 house, in the middle of the day, suddenly came on several 

 lions in the middle of the road ; they lay watching him and 

 declined to move; so he walked off to one side and round 

 them; whereupon they rose and followed him nearly to his 

 house, slinking along through the patches of thin cover. 

 They did not attack him; but they were certainly not fol- 

 lowing him with friendly motives ; and the walk home with 

 such attendants was distinctly uncanny. 



When hunted, the lion certainly stands high in the cate- 

 gory of dangerous game. There has been endless discussion 

 and endless variety of opinion among experienced hunters 

 as to which animal is the most dangerous. Nor is this dis- 

 cussion confined to African game; the same diversity of 

 opinion as to the relative danger of hunting on foot the tiger, 

 the Indian elephant, and the various wild oxen, such as the 

 buffalo, obtains among men who have hunted in Asia; and 

 this is likewise true when we consider the grizzly bear and 

 jaguar. Enough attention is not paid to the wide differ- 

 ences of character among individual animals of the same 

 species — just as among individual men; and moreover, the 

 surroundings under which one kind of animal is dangerous 

 may be the very surroundings under which another, nor- 

 mally more dangerous, would be less dangerous. On a level, 

 open plain a fighting buffalo bull, or even a fighting tusker 

 — elephant — would be rather more dangerous than a lion or 

 leopard, because harder to stop — at least the buffalo would 

 certainly be harder to kill, turn, or stop than either of the 

 big cats, and the tusker very much harder to kill or cripple, 

 although perhaps easier to stop or turn. On the other 

 hand, the buffalo would be less apt to charge than the ele- 



