PRIMEVAL MAN 195 



then elephant, rhino, and buffalo, and, on the 

 open plains at the edge of the forest, zebra. 

 The zebra was a favorite food; but they could 

 only get at it when it left the open plains and 

 came among the bushes or to drink at the river. 

 Two of these wild hunters showed me the bones 

 of an elephant they had killed in a pit a long 

 time previously; and the head man of those we 

 had with us on another trip bore the scars of 

 frightful wounds inflicted by an angered buffalo. 

 Hyenas at times haunted the neighborhood, 

 and after nightfall might attempt to carry off 

 a child or even a sleeping man. Very rarely 

 the hunters killed a leopard, and sometimes a 

 leopard pounced on one of them. The lion 

 they feared greatly, but it did not enter the 

 woods, and they were in danger from it only 

 if they ventured on the plain. The head man 

 above mentioned told us that once, when des 

 perate with hunger, his little tribe, or family 

 group, had found a buffalo killed by a lion, and 

 had attacked and slain the lion, and then feasted 

 on both it and the buffalo. But on another oc 

 casion a lion had turned the tables and killed 

 two of their number. The father of one of my 

 guides had been killed by baboons; he had at 

 tacked a young one with a club, and the old 

 males tore him to pieces with their huge dog 



