120 THE STORY OF THE LION. 



in the rays of a tropical sun, returning night after night to the feast, until 

 no more meat is left. This occurs in parts of the country abounding in game, 

 where it would give a party of lions but little trouble or exertion to catch a 

 zebra, buffalo, or antelope, and procure themselves a meal of fresh meat. 

 In the same way, no matter how plentiful game may be, lions will almost 

 invariably feast upon any dead animal left by the hunter, from a buffalo tO' a 

 steinbuck, that they may happen tO' come across. 



Near villages, when lions grow too old to be able to take game for them- 

 selves, they will take tO' killing goats ; while women or children who happen 

 to come in their way at night also become victims. On the other hand, when 

 far away from human habitations, such decrepit lions catch mice and other 

 small rodents, and will even at times eat grass, although this may be taken 

 m.edicinally. 



That such lions, which have become too feeble to prey upon game, would 

 naturally develop into "man-eaters" if they were permitted to live, appears 

 highly probable. The absence of man-eating lions in parts of Africa is due 

 to the superior boldness of the African natives over those of India, for even 

 among the least martial tribes of South Africa, if two or three people are 

 killed by a lion, the population of the surrounding country is roused, and, a 

 party being formed, the lion is usually surrounded and stabbed to death with 

 assegais ; while among such warlike stribes as the Matabele, if a lion only kills 

 an ox, or even a goat, its fate is usually sealed, or even if not killed, it gets 

 such a scare that it is glad to quit the district. Such a thing as a man-eater, 

 or even an habitual cattle-slayer, would never be tolerated for an instant. 



My shooting experiences in eastern South Africa, in the districts of Zulu- 

 land, Tongaland, and Swaziland, show that man-eating lions are tO' be met 

 with in some regions. I became an accessory to the death of twO' such man- 

 eaters, one of which had well-nigh depopulated a district, having killed between 

 thirty and forty individuals ; while the second, although dwelling in an unin- 

 habited country full of game, had become notorious for its attacks upon the 

 camps of the hunters. The former, indeed, appeared tO' be an animal in the 

 full enjoyment of bodily strength, as it is said to have habitually leaped over 

 the high fences which surround the Zulu villages. 



With regard to the method in which lions kill and carry off the larger 

 animals upon which they prey, it may be observed, in the first place, that 

 there is some doubt whether death is effected by dislocating the neck of the 

 victim, as is always done by tigers. In a cow killed by a lion in Abyssinia 

 the vertebrae of the neck were not dislocated ; and I saw a lioness hold u 



