NATIVE CARELESSNESS. I 53 



Moreover, the camp of the Mantateesis quite unsafe 

 while her ladyship is frequenting the neighbourhood. 

 So I placed strychnine in a hind-quarter of a buffalo 

 calf, hung it in a conspicuous place and one easy 

 of access, in fact where she had committed her 

 numerous depredations on our larder. In the 

 morning the bait was gone ; soon after sunrise the 

 man-eater was found near the river, dead, her carcass 

 blown out to an extraordinary size. On inspection 

 of the body, I discovered from her teeth that she was 

 very old, further in very poor condition ; moreover 

 her claws were broken and split, with a large 

 lodgment of earth and hair underneath each. From 

 this I surmise that she had, from decrepitude, the 

 result of having lived to a very great age, been 

 compelled to become the terror of my people — as 

 men are taken with greater facility than game — and 

 an outcast from her own race. 



Any person would suppose that after the frightful 

 tragedy that had been enacted in their camp, the 

 Mantatees would have devoted a little of their spare 

 time to render the place impervious to the ingress 

 of wild animals ; not a bit of it, not a stake or a 

 thorn bush did they add to their enclosure since 

 their companion was carried off. The wretches did 

 not seem to care ; their indifference or apathy to 

 danger is extraordinary. " Live to-day, if we die 

 to-morrow," ought to be their motto. 



But it is far from agreeable to me to have 



