68 LION-HUNTING [ch. hi 



my visit Harold Hill had met with a rather unpleasant 

 adventure. He was walking home across the lonely 

 plains in the broad daylight, never dreaming that lions 

 might be abroad, and was unarmed. When still some 

 miles from his house, while plodding along, he glanced 

 up and saw three lions in the trail only fifty yards off, 

 staring fixedly at him. It happened to be a place where 

 the grass was rather tall, and lions are always bold where 

 there is the slightest cover ; whereas, unless angered, 

 they are cautious on bare ground. He halted, and then 

 walked slowly to one side, and then slowly forward 

 toward his house. The lions followed him with their 

 eyes, and when he had passed they rose and slouched 

 after him. They were not pleasant followers, but to 

 hurry would have been fatal ; and he walked slowly on 

 along the road, while for a mile he kept catching 

 glimpses of the tawny bodies of the beasts as they trod 

 stealthily forward through the sunburned grass along- 

 side or a little behind him. Then the grass grew short, 

 and the lions halted and continued to gaze after him 

 until he disappeared over a rise. 



Everywhere throughout the country we were crossing 

 were signs that the lion was lord, and that his reign was 

 cruel. There were many lions, for the game on which 

 they feed was extraordinarily abundant. They occasion- 

 ally took the ostriches or stock of the settlers, or ravaged 

 the herds and flocks of the natives, but not often ; for 

 their favourite food was yielded by the swarming herds 

 of kongoni and zebras, on which they could prey at 

 will. Later we found that in this region they rarely 

 molested the buffalo, even where they lived in the same 

 reed-beds ; and this though elsewhere they habitually 

 prey on the buffalo. But where zebras and hartebeests 

 could be obtahied without eiibrt, it was evidently not 



