56 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES CHAP. 



man by one shoulder, so that his legs dragged at its 

 side. As soon as it became aware that it was being 

 followed, it dropped its prey, and wheeling round, 

 stood looking at its pursuers, twitching its tail and 

 growling angrily. 



Henry Wall, who was a very good shot and a 

 cool and courageous man, now tried to fire, but the 

 old, clumsy, muzzle-loading elephant gun he was 

 using only snapped the cap. At this juncture 

 Jantje, who was a little to one side, was unable to 

 fire because there was a bush in his way, and 

 before Henry Wall could get another cap on the 

 nipple of his gun, the Kafir who carried his second 

 weapon fired at and missed the lion, which instantly 

 turned and, running into a patch of bush, made 

 good its escape. 



On examination, it was found that the dead man 

 had been seized by the head. He must have been 

 killed instantaneously, as the two upper canine 

 teeth had been driven through the top of the skull, 

 whilst one of the lower ones had entered beneath 

 the jaw and broken the bone. During the night 

 the corpse had been disembowelled and all the 

 flesh eaten off the thighs and buttocks. 



A few days later, a native family was attacked 

 not far from the scene of the episode I have 

 just recounted, and almost certainly by the same 

 lion. 



All over Africa, wherever game is plentiful, it is 

 customary for the natives, at the season when their 

 crops are ripening, to build huts in their fields, in 

 which they spend the night and endeavour to keep 

 buffaloes, elephants, and all kinds of antelopes out 

 of their corn by shouting and beating tom-toms. 

 The huts are often built on the top of platforms 

 raised ten or twelve feet above the ground and 

 reached by a ladder. The native family in question 

 occupied two huts- a large one built on the ground 



