84 AFRICA SPEAKS 



lions,'* due perhaps to the remoteness of the country 

 from white habitation and to the vast expanses with- 

 out even a native village. That we only saw a fraction 

 of the Hon population however, the incident here related 

 will in a measure explain. 



One hot afternoon after having spent weeks with our 

 lions until, as far as we were concerned, they had no 

 fear, we were making some scenes near a water hole 

 with six of them. Everything was going along 

 smoothly when suddenly they began to stand at rigid 

 attention, gazing the while toward the hill back of us. 

 After a short time they walked into the tall grass one 

 by one and hid themselves away. We were nonplussed 

 as to the reason for this, and remained without an 

 answer until two Masai spearmen appeared almost at 

 our feet. The hons had spotted them as they topped 

 the hill and their natural suspicion of man asserted 

 itself. They had long looked upon us as friends but 

 were not sure of strangers. After the Masai were out 

 of sight they came back to us again. 



This explained to me why so many hunters never 

 see a lion. The Hon sees them first and from then on 

 keeps well out of the way. As to hiding ability, I 

 have seen lions conceal themselves in places that a 

 rabbit would scorn, and do it so well that the inex- 

 perienced eye could never detect them. 



They did not fear us because we had repeatedly 

 shown that our intentions were peaceful. We had lost 

 most of our fear of them because we now beheved that 

 a Hon would not molest man under ordinary condi- 

 tions. There is a saying in Africa, however, which 

 has time and again been proven absolutely true: "The 

 only certainty about a lion is his uncertainty." We 



