THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 91 



The fact is a strange one, and one whose significance cannot be 

 ignored. It vastly widens our conception of the native inteUigence of 

 these lower forms of life. We cannot fail to admit that their brains 

 work in somewhat the same manner as our own — not reaching as 

 lofty conceptions, yet indicating powers of logical reasoning in the 

 lower levels of thought. Certainly a significant evidence of this is 

 the quickness with which the animal hosts of northeastern Africa have 

 adapted themselves to the new situation, and seem to tell each other: 

 "It is all right here. The thunder-wagon will not hurt you. You are 

 safe where it passes." 



The state of affairs here described did not always exist in this 

 region. Years before the arrival of Colonel Roosevelt and his train 

 a very different condition prevailed. In the early days of the railway 

 enterprise, when the building operations were in progress, no restric- 

 tion to the methods of the hunter existed and it was a common prac- 

 tice to shoot animals from the train. In those days, then, the happy 

 confidence between man and brute did not exist and the approach of 

 the engine was the signal for a wild scamper of the animals of the 

 vicinity. They dreaded its approach then as much as they disregard 

 it now. The animal intelligence of which we have spoken then acted 

 to the opposite effect and the warning probably went out to avoid this 

 death-dealing monster that had invaded their haunts. 



But victory in the fray between man and beast was not solely 

 upon the side of man. Lions haunted the locality, and though the hun- 

 ter has found this maned and roaring animal to be anything but the 

 king of beasts of old tradition, but rather a lurking and sneaking ten- 

 ant of the wilds that fears and avoids the hunter, yet there is a phase 

 of his career in which his whole character seems to change. 



When the lion has once tasted human flesh he acquires an ardent 

 liking for it and is apt to pursue man with an inordinate appetite, the 

 man-eating lion becoming the terror of the locality in which he is 

 found. He ceases in a measure to care for his customary food and 

 lies in wait for man with the intense desire of an epicure of the wil- 

 derness. 



We speak of this here from the fact that during the building of 

 the railway a number of man-eating lions infested its locality ^i4 



