58 LION-HUNTING [ch. hi 



and crushed the Hfe out of it, although his arm was 

 badly bitten. A leopard will charge at least as readily 

 as one of the big beasts, and is rather more apt to get 

 his charge home, but the risk is less to life than to limb. 

 There are other animals often or occasionally danger- 

 ous to human life which are, nevertheless, not dangerous 

 to the hunter. Crocodiles are far greater pests, and far 

 more often man-eaters, than lions or leopards ; but their 

 shooting is not accompanied by the smallest element of 

 risk. Poisonous snakes are fruitful sources of accident, 

 but they are actuated only by fear and the anger born 

 of fear. The hippopotamus sometimes destroys boats 

 and kills those in them ; but again there is no risk in 

 hunting him. P^inally, the hyena, too cowardly ever to 

 be a source of danger to the hunter, is sometimes a 

 dreadful curse to the weak and helpless. The hyena is 

 a beast of unusual strength and of enormous power in 

 his jaws and teeth, and thrice over would he be dreaded 

 were fang and sinew driven by a heart of the leopard's 

 cruel courage. But though the creature's foul and evil 

 ferocity has no such backing as that yielded by the 

 angry daring of the spotted cat, it is yet fraught with a 

 terror all its own ; for on occasion the hyena takes to 

 man-eating after its own fasliion. Carrion-feeder tliough 

 it is, in certain places it will enter native huts and carry 

 away children or even sleeping adults ; and where famine 

 or disease has worked havoc among a people, the hideous 

 spotted beasts become bolder and prey on the survivors. 

 For some years past Uganda has been scourged by the 

 sleeping-sickness, which has ravaged it as in the Middle 

 Ages the Black Death ravaged Europe. Hundreds 

 of thousands of natives have died. Every effort has 

 been made by the Government officials to cope with 

 the disease ; and among other things sleeping-sickness 



