70 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER CH. 



against his attack, for he will, if pressed by hunger, 

 force his way into the native huts at night. 



All over East and Central Africa, the idea is firmly 

 imbedded in the native mind that man-eating lions 

 are simply reincarnations of chiefs and medicine men, 

 etc., who prowl about taking vengeance on those 

 who wronged them during their lives in human 

 shape. 



Innumerable cases of man-eating lions have come 

 to my personal notice, and perhaps an account of a 

 few of them may prove of interest. 



Some years ago, I was hunting in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Luhanyando stream, a tributary of the 

 Luwegu, where the country, being mountainous and 

 full of dense bush and grassy ravines, affords excel- 

 lent cover for lions, who, at the time, were con- 

 stantly killing natives in these parts. 



The details of a particularly sad occurrence that 

 happened in a village in this district are still vividly 

 fresh in my mind, and will perhaps give the reader 

 some idea of the determination, ferocity and daring 

 of the King of Beasts when he has acquired a taste 

 for human flesh. 



On the day previous to our arrival, one of the 

 villagers had buried her husband, and she and her 

 daughter, having passed the night in her mother-in- 

 law's hut, rose at early dawn, as natives usually do, 

 to return to their own dwelling, which was not 



