210 EASTERN ETHIOPIA xvi 



his property with barbed wire ; this costs with the 

 posts about 40 per mile. Zebras run together often 

 in large herds, and if it happens that a lion, lioness, 

 and family are on the prowl, the herd becomes alarmed 

 when these huge cats are in the vicinity and often 

 stampedes. If in the course of their mad rush they 

 come against any barbed wire, it will be broken down 

 for many yards. One settler explained to me that 

 lions find the wire useful, for when the panic-stricken 

 zebras rush the wire, one or more of the animals may be 

 entangled in the loose ends and fall an easy prey. 



The settlers find strychnia an extremely useful 

 poison for destroying lions. I find that they adopt 

 the following method : 



A zebra is shot and the carcase is partly flayed, and 

 the exposed fleshy part of the carcase has a few grains 

 of strychnia spread upon it. The results are excellent. 

 In one year a settler destroyed at least seventeen 

 lions : the carcases of nine were found near the bait 

 and the skeletons of the remainder in adjacent parts of 

 the farm after the grass had been fired. In addition, he 

 poisoned numerous leopards and hyaenas. 



It is a fact worth remembering, in poisoning meat 

 with strychnia, not to put much of the drug on the 

 carcase. If the lion gets too much strychnia he 

 will vomit and thus, getting rid of the drug, escape 

 death. 



From the earliest times lions have been a terror to 

 herdsmen. A representation of two lions killing an ox 

 was emblazoned on the noble shield made by Vulcan, at 

 the request of Thetis, for Achilles : 



Two lions rushing from the wood appear'd, 

 And seized a bull, the master of the herd. 



The presence of lions in the neighbourhood of 

 civilised communities is a source of much unpleasant 

 excitement and occasionally terror. Some years ago, 

 a man-eating lion became notorious for taking patients 



