MAN-EATEHS. 25 



in the interior Dever burying their dead, but un- 

 ceremoniously leaving the corpses of their friends 

 exposed in the forest, or on the plain, as the case 

 may be, a prey to wild beasts or the vulture ; and 

 I can readily imagine that a lion thus " blooded," 

 so to say, would have little hesitation, when oppor- 

 tunity presented itself, of springing upon and carry- 

 ing off the traveller or native thafc carne in his 

 way. 



But the practice of getting rid of the dead in the 

 way spoken of does not exist in all parts of the in- 

 terior, where, nevertheless, " man -eaters " are to 

 be found. I am therefore inclined to believe that 

 the habit of certain lions making a meal of a man, 

 when they can get hold of him, arises rather from 

 incapacity on their part to secure their ordinary 

 prey than from anything else ; and I have the greater 

 reason to think this is the case, since young lions 

 are seldom found to indulge in human food. When 

 the beast becomes crippled, whether from wounds 

 or old age, and is no longer able to grapple with the 

 wild animals of his native haunts, it is only reason- 

 able to suppose he will seize the first and most 

 favourable opportunity of satisfying his hunger, and 

 this the exposed situation of the native villages 

 too often affords him. 



Strangely enough, the lion, it is confidently 

 asserted, would rather dine off a black man than a 

 white, and the cause assigned is somewhat singular. 



O 



"The beast in question," says Thunberg, "had 

 much rather eat a Hottentot than a Christian 



