42 2 CAT TRIBE 



man-eater, having once acquired the taste for human flesh, and overcome 

 his awe of human beings, perseveres in his evil course, getting bolder 

 and bolder, till he becomes the terror of the country-side. It is 

 possible even that a race of man-eaters may be developed, for I have 

 known of a particular locality being reputed dangerous from that cause 

 for more than a generation. 



" On parts of the Uganda road straggling porters have for years fallen 

 victims to lions ; and the loss of life from this cause among the Indian 

 coolies employed as navvies on the railway was so serious that at one 

 point, not far from the Tsavo river, where between twenty and thirty 

 had fallen victims to two man-eaters, the work was considerably 

 retarded by the labourers refusing to remain. Lions have also been 

 known to enter dwellings ; at least one European has been taken out 

 of his tent and killed by one of these animals ; while one of my own 

 gun-bearers lost a brother by a lion which forced its way into his hut 

 near the coast and carried him off.'' 



A fuller account of the lions on the Uganda railway has been 

 subsequently given by Colonel J. H. Patterson, the engineer in charge, 

 in the Man-Eaters of Tsavo, from which the following items are taken. 



The task of constructing the Uganda line entailed the engagement 

 of some 3000 Indian coolies, who were distributed among various 

 camps as the work required ; and it was these men who furnished 

 food for the lions which, as it proved, had their den close by. Colonel 

 Patterson had a difficult task when he determined to rid the neighbour- 

 hood of the man-eaters, for they seemed to realise that their only 

 chance of escape lay in attacking a different camp each night, so that 

 attempts to kill them from platforms were almost hopeless. The 

 Tsavo man-eaters were only two — maneless males — but these killed 

 a coolie nearly every night ; and during the nine months the reign of 

 terror continued the change in their practice and methods was clearly 

 observed. The first endeavours of these lions were by no means 

 always successful ; they were bold enough from the beginning, but at 

 the critical moment they did not always rise to the occasion. On one 

 occasion, for instance, a lion broke into the tent of a contractor, and 

 seized and made off with, not the man, but the mattress on which he 

 was lying. Another night a lion sprang through the tent in which 

 fourteen coolies were sleeping and seized a bag of rice, which was 

 carried for a little distance and dropped. As time went on the lions 

 ceased to make such blunders, and went about their deadly work with 

 the coolness and temerity which come of practice. They appeared, 

 indeed, to study the conditions under which they had to work, and 



