320 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



with a lantern, he called out, ' Don't shoot now, the lion is lying 

 on me ' ; this was translated by the interpreter, and presently 

 the plucky fellow again spoke and said, ' Now fire, she's standing 

 up over me.' Three shots were then fired into the lioness, which 

 was very badly wounded, and ultimately killed the next morn- 

 ing. The wounded native was then pulled back into the camp, 

 but, though conscious, he was so terribly mutilated that he died 

 early the next day. The lioness was now hors de combat, but two 

 young lions that were with her soon afterwards invaded the camp 

 and attacked the horses tied on the picket-line. Five of these 

 broke away all tied together, and all five were more or less 

 scratched and bitten, two of them very severely. None were 

 killed, however, and ultimately all of them recovered. Later 

 on one of the young lions came back to the camp, and carried 

 off a saddle, which it tore all to pieces. When day broke, the 

 wounded lioness was shot, but the young lions had made off, 

 and were not seen. I have given this anecdote because I was 

 in Umtali shortly after the return of the patrol and spoke with 

 all the men who had taken part in it, and saw the horses with 

 their wounds still unhealed, and the remnants of the saddle 

 that had been torn all to pieces. However, although in the 

 interior of South Africa a certain number of natives are killed 

 annually by hungry lions, I do not think that these animals are 

 so destructive to human life as are tigers in India. Although 

 cases do occur, I think it very exceptional for a lion to kill 

 human beings for food except when driven to it by hunger. 

 In the neighbourhood of the Pungwe river, where game of all 

 kinds abounds, and where lions are also very numerous, the 

 natives assured me that the lions never troubled them ; but in 

 Northern Mashonaland, where game is comparatively scarce, the 

 lions in 1886 became so dangerous, and carried off so many 

 women whilst they were working in their cornfields, that the 

 few scattered families of Mashunas living in the district to the 

 north of Lo Magondi's deserted the country. Old lions, whose 

 bodily powers are on the wane, are probably the most dan- 

 gerous. When they can no longer catch and pull down wild 



