THE LION 35 



learned to dread man they often spring up and dash off 

 at full gallop without a backward glance, uttering a 

 succession of rumbling grunts as they go. When lying 

 up by day lions like to hide themselves in some thick 

 patch of bush, reeds, or grass, where the surrounding 

 country is open or only lightly forested, that they may 

 see all round while themselves concealed ; but where the 

 forest is everywhere dense they usually prefer to lie 

 under some small bush or tree in the middle of the most 

 open space they can find, thus placing field of view 

 before concealment. / When lying down, even right in 

 the open, they are often extremely hard to see, and are 

 sometimes betrayed only by their black-tipped ears. 



Like other beasts of prey, Nature has so fashioned these 

 cats that they are able to go for considerable periods 

 without food. Therefore, excepting in places where 

 game is so numerous as to be caught with little exertion, 

 it seems probable that the number of creatures destroyed 

 by a single lion in a year is less than is generally imagined. 



In South Africa cases of man-eating have always been 

 comparatively rare, probably in consequence of the 

 bold and virile nature of most of the native tribes, who 

 would seldom permit the destruction even of a goat to 

 pass unpunished. There are, however, a few stories, 

 dating from the days before the white men came, still 

 current in the Transvaal low veld, showing that lions had 

 then considerably less respect for man than at the present 

 day. A tale is related of how a lion once got into a 

 native hut which contained a small child, the mother 

 having either managed to make her escape, or being 

 absent at the time. The villagers set fire to the wattle 

 and grass walls, whereupon the lion escaped through 

 the roof. The child was burned to death. 



The only proved local case of man-eating which I 



