APPENDIX. 273 



The genuine article is said to be recognised by the smell. It is used for ear-ache, rheumatism, 

 and various other maladies. It forms a good substitute for rifle-oil, should the sportsman run 

 short of it. 



The Lions' Amulet. — There is a belief amongst the Swahilis that the lion possesses a charm 

 or amulet (Herizi) which it carries about in its mouth. This is said to be about the size of a 

 walnut, and to consist of hair and bone (perhaps a ball of matted hair lodged between the teeth). 

 This the lion is supposed to bury when he goes hunting, and after drinking he returns, scratches 

 it up, and carries it off again to wherever he intends lying up. When he is about to die he is 

 said to propel tiiis out of his mouth to a great distance to avoid its being found. I have never 

 seen this substance or I should start a manufactory of it and open a shop in Mombasa, for it 

 fetches enormous prices amongst the peoples of the coast. A small fragment wrapped up and 

 w'orn round the neck makes one immune from the attacks of lions or other wild beasts, and it 

 also has various otiier properties. Whenever a lion is killed, porters are seen anxiously searching 

 the ground all round the body, and from that spot back to the place at which the lion was first 

 seen. The Masai have no faith in its properties, but allege that there is such a substance, and 

 that it is expelled from the mouth before death. 



Methods of Hunting. — A single lion will generally locate its herd of game and crawl up as 

 near as possible, then make a sudden dash for an animal. It may watch which way they are 

 gazing, and lie in wait on a flank so as not to give them its wind. 



Generally on the plains parties of lions hunt together, and when so doing they have various 

 devices for driving game to each other, such as roaring or stampeding a herd by giving them 

 their wind, when others will be in readiness to waylay them as they go off. Lions may be heard in 

 full pursuit of an animal, during which time they make a continuous grunting sound. Presumably 

 they have not much chance of catching the animal when it is in full flight, but they are trying to 

 drive it to tluir fellows, and the grunting is to show their whereabouts. When the animal is 

 exhausted by its first wild stampede, the others, fresh to the pursuit, have more chance of 

 catching it. They often apply the same tactics to stock, and will pass upwind or roar so as to 

 stampede cattle. This is more likely to be effective when cattle are being moved from one 

 locality to another, and so are only enclosed in a light zareba. 



During the day lions often take up a concealed position in some little patch of cover near a 

 drinking-place, and when herds come to drink they spring out on them. This they often do 

 during the daytime, and the number of skulls frequently found near these little reed-patches, 

 or !ying-up places, afford abundant evidence of the success of the scheme. 



The lions of the i^lains will often kill in this way by day. A case occurred near Embu, when 

 I was in that Imality, of a lion springing out of cover and taking a calf whilst the cattle 

 were out grazing. 



The bush-lion, before he tries to kill stock or before he attacks a hut, has, as a rule, 

 reconnoitred the spot thoroughly first. Sometimes he will visit tht- place on a succession of 

 nights before he finally breaks into a kraal. 



When addicted to man-eating, 1 have often been told by natives that a lion will jump on 

 to the roof of a hut, and then part the grass-thatching with a paw and plunge through. If 

 he effects an entrance through the wall he will generally scratch a hole, and then, pressing 

 back the wattle, insert his nose and force a passage. 



The scratching and the preliminary widening of the aperture is, from all accounts, generally 

 performed cautiously and without undue noise or blows from the paw. .\ settler told me that a 



N N 



