274 THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



friendly lion, after prowling round his log-cabin for a while, came to the door and began gently 

 scratching. Finding that it was solid wood he eventually left it, although a crashing blow from 

 the paw would almost certainly have staved it in. 



I have heard it stated, however, that a lion will never rain blows on a hut, but will always 

 scratch and then slowly force a passage. This is not true, as I am able to testify. I was 

 once camped alongside a native village, and during the night I was aroused by my boys to be 

 told that there were lions about. Going out of my tent, I was able to hear some lions paying a 

 round of calls on a number of villages near. I could hear easily the moment of their visit to a 

 village, from the noise made by the inhabitants, which commenced and continued long after the 

 animals had left. A few roars followed each visit, and then silence, and presently shouts, drums 

 beating, and various noises from a new direction would proclaim that the lions had arrived at 

 another village. After one of the periods of silence a double crash suddenly came from a hut 

 near by. After this the band which started (every man in his hut contributing some music by 

 beating sticks, drums, tins, or anything which came handy, joined with vocal accompaniment) 

 drowned all other sounds. After a while, however, louder than the concert, were heard the 

 roarings of the lions as they left and went off elsewhere. As the night was absolutely black, I 

 could see nothing of their methods, but from a careful inspection on the morrow and questioning 

 the natives I was enabled to gather exactly what had happened. 



The double crash I had heard was caused by two blows, one on either side of the doorway 

 of a hut, and one of these had staved in a portion of the wall, with the exception of some strong 

 uprights, about 5 inches thick, which had held firm. These blows were not preceded by any 

 scratchings. The lion, seeing that this hut was too strong for him, had proceeded to another, to 

 reach which he had to pass two others. There he had made a large breach in the wall and 

 passed in. From the look of the hole and the strength required to break the staves, I concluded 

 that this had also been caused by a blow. The blows given to the first hut would in all 

 probability have effected a breach if they had been delivered anywhere but upon the strong 

 uprights on either side of the door. Having made a hole in the second hut he had forced his 

 body through, breaking back the withies of the wall, and had passed round the centre-pole 

 of the hut and out again, having, to his disappointment, found no one inside. This 

 seemed rather an error of judgment on his part, as probably that hut was the only empty one 

 in the village, the owner having left it that day. However, from the number of times I have 

 heard of a woman or man being alone in a hut and falling a victim, I fancy that a lion 

 generally selects an almost empty hut for preference, and that if he smells many people in a 

 hut he is inclined to leave it. 



That he did not attempt to touch one of my porters, although we were standing in a group 

 in the open whilst he passed on a path close by, seems to show that lions will avoid a group of 

 people, though they will attack a solitary man or two men together. 



Although from the roaring I gathered that there were two animals, only one came into the 

 village, passing my tent to do so, as we found by the spoor in the morning. The second must 

 have been waiting quite close by, as they joined up again directly he left the village. This is 

 the only occasion on which I have actually heard a lion breaking into a hut, although I have 

 several times arrived on the scene the next day, and so seen the spot and obtained first-hand 

 information from natives present. 



Spur on Lion's Tail. — I have never heard an explanation concerning this extraordinary 

 appendage, or a suggestion as to what function it could serve or has served in bygone times. 



