578 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



is dignified with the appellation of " man-eaters." These 

 are tigers which, having once tasted human flesh, show a 

 predilection for the same, and such characters are very 

 naturally famed and dreaded among the natives. Elderly 

 gentlemen of similar tastes and habits are occasionally met 

 with among the lions in the interior of South Africa, and 

 the danger of such neighbors may be easily imagined. I 

 account for lions first acquiring this taste in the following 

 manner : the Bechuana tribes of the far interior do not bury 

 their dead, but unceremoniously carry them forth, and leave 

 them lying exposed in the forest or on the plain, a prey to 

 the lion and hysena, or the jackal and vulture ; and I can 

 readily imagine that a lion, having thus once tasted human 

 flesh, would have little hesitation, when opportunity presented 

 itself, of springing upon and carrying off the unwary traveller 

 or "Bechuana" inhabiting his country. Be this as it may, 

 man-eaters occur ; and on my fourth hunting expedition, a 

 horrible tragedy was acted one dark night in my little lonely 

 camp by one of these formidable characters, which deprived 

 me, in the far wilderness, of my most valuable servant. In 

 winding up these few observations on the lion, which I trust 

 will not have been tiresome to the reader, I may remark 

 that lion-hunting, under any circumstances, is decidedly a 

 dangerous pursuit. It may nevertheless be followed, to a 

 certain extent, with comparative safety by those who have 

 naturally a turn for that sort of thing. A recklessness of 

 death, perfect coolness and self-possession, an acquaintance 

 with the disposition and manners of lions, and a tolerable 

 knowledge of the use of the rifle, are indispensable to him 

 who would shine in the overpoweringly exciting pastime of 

 hunting this justly celebrated king of beasts. 



It would be a pity, if, amidst his other lauded character- 

 istics, the lion should not be quite as remarkable for manners 

 as magnanimity. Moffat, the daring agent of the London 

 Missionary Society in South Africa, who for twenty-three 



