138 CHIEFS & CITIES OF CENTRAL AFRICA 



struggled unavailingly to climb into Mr Talbot's 

 chair, and I would lift him in. Without hesitation 

 he would flop out once more and begin his struggles 

 all over again. 



Herr von Raben had sent them, knowing we should 

 feel sad that day — one for Mrs Talbot, the other 

 for me, — with a charming letter in which he expressed 

 the hope that the little lions might enjoy the ladies. 

 I hope and believe they did. Anyway, we both sacri- 

 ficed a trreat deal to that end : Mandara became their 

 nurse, and a milch goat was bought for their benefit — 

 though even from the very first we weye told to give 

 them meat as well as milk. I do not 

 think it can have any efiect in making 

 them savage. Our cubs had, as I say, 

 raw meat from the moment they were 

 big enough to eat it. A very little 

 Brass-cast of Iq^Iqy thev cauffht pigeons and chickens 



Chicken. j ^ l o ^ 



for themselves. Later still, when their 

 tongues had become very rough, they licked me 

 till the blood flowed, but their sunny tempers never 

 seemed the least aflected. 



Kusseri was the smaller and weaker of the two, but 

 he was the first to kill. He caught a pigeon, and Mr 

 Talbot, who wished to teach him better ways, smacked 

 him. The baby would not let go his prey, and Mr 

 Talbot boxed his ear. The little fellow turned quite 

 ill. He could hardly move, and dragged himself a 

 few yards as if his limbs were paralysed. Mastaba 

 seized him by the wounded ear, raised him from the 

 ground and shook him violently. My scream of anger 

 at this apparent cruelty died away on my lips, for little 



