THE VENGEANCE OF THE WILD 251 



the butt of his rifle into her jaws, but she 

 crunched it like matchwood. Then she seized 

 his right hand and worried it so terribly that, 

 by way of making her let go, he gave her his 

 left. The lioness was then shot, and his men 

 got him alive back to Aden, but, though he 

 underwent an operation without further delay, 

 the poison had got into his system and he died 

 within a month. 



The lion is probably the most dangerous 

 animal in Africa. At any rate, it has been 

 responsible for more accidents, fatal or other- 

 wise, to sportsmen than any other, and if 

 South Africa has of late years played a minor 

 part in the history of these tragedies, it is only 

 because, during the past quarter of a century, 

 Englishmen have shot ten lions in British East 

 Africa and Somaliland to one bagged in the 

 country south of the Zambesi. The lion, 

 unless a confirmed man-eater, usually kills his 

 victim and leaves him to the jackals. Man- 

 eaters, however, have never been so common 

 as among tigers in India, though Mr. Teale 

 was killed and eaten by a lion in Mashonaland 

 about twenty years ago, and the terrible doings 

 of the Tsavo lions, which devoured both coolies 

 and white men, have already been referred to. 

 The list of Europeans killed by lions makes 

 gloomy reading and is too long to quote at 

 length. Man-eaters commonly attack without 



