30 ANIMAL- LIFE IN AFRICA 



episode continued almost until dawn, which was naturally 

 welcomed heartily by every one concerned. These 

 lions apparently displayed no nervousness of human 

 beings whatever. 



Such conduct is, however, by no means invariable or 

 even usual. Major Fraser was once encamped on the 

 Let aba under very similar conditions. The night was very 

 dark and rain was falling. The slumber of no one was 

 disturbed ; but in the morning the impressions in the 

 soft ground showed that some lions had crept close up and 

 had then sprung back as if alarmed, apparently repeating 

 the proceeding several times before departing. Major 

 Fraser believed that the bells which were hung round 

 the donkeys' necks had the effect of scaring away the 

 marauders, and I have known this occur in the case 

 of trek oxen, one of which usually has a bell attached to 

 his neck, so that the animals may not be lost when 

 grazing in the bush. In former days, when wagons 

 used to proceed by road through the low country from 

 Delagoa Bay to Lydenburg, certain places along the route 

 had a very bad reputation. In order to avoid the tsetse 

 fly it was necessary to trek by night part of the way, and, 

 near the Entumeni River, lions would often spring on 

 the span and kill one of the oxen while actually travelling. 

 This they did, moreover, with complete impunity, because, 

 fearing the fly, the transport riders were forced to push 

 on through the belt before morning, and so had no time 

 to stop and punish the marauders. 



Purely game-eating lions, which have little or no 

 experience of man and his domestic animals, are certainly, 

 as a rule, comparatively timid, even at night, when in 

 human presence ; but it is almost impossible to anticipate 

 how different individuals or parties will act. Mr. Healy 

 once tied up a goat and sat over it at a kraal where, 



