40 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



as he could, with the assistance of his servants, on arrival 

 there. Next morning the natives found the dead carcass 

 of the lion, and brought in the horse, which, though 

 but slightly injured, was never any use afterwards for 

 bush work, its nerve being completely ruined. Wolhuter 

 himself was carried down country, and arrived in Bar- 

 berton Hospital about a week later. A naturally strong 

 constitution, and the fact of his being in very hard 

 condition at the time of the accident, eventually pulled 

 him through ; but blood poisoning set in, as it almost 

 invariably does when wounds received from carnivorous 

 animals are not quickly and scientifically treated, and it 

 was many months before he was able to resume his duties. 

 Talking over the matter afterwards, Wolhuter gave it as 

 his opinion that the lions were stalking the horse, and 

 possibly were even unaware of his presence until he 

 actually fell into the jaws of one of them. Almost 

 certainly neither of these lions had ever tasted human 

 flesh, such a thing as a native being carried away by a 

 man-eater not having occurred in the district for many 

 years. 



Although it is a very exceptional thing to come across 

 lions by daylight, unless one is actually hunting for them, 

 newcomers to a game country always seem to expect 

 to meet the animals at every turn, and their imagination 

 often plays them curious pranks. A very young trooper 

 of the Constabulary once arrived at Sabi Bridge in a 

 state bordering on panic. He had met a lion in the 

 middle of the path. Some doubt being felt on the 

 matter, he was asked to describe it, and replied that it 

 was as big as a bull, black, and had horns I 



On another occasion a ganger on the railway came 

 speeding on his trolley into the nearest station to say that 

 he had been " held up " by three lions a mile down the 



