Famished Lions 47 



their favourite plants grow, there is, therefore, great 

 likelihood of meeting them ; the only thing to do is 

 to wait patiently, without making any noise, and 

 walking about needlessly as little as possible, because 

 human tracks smell for several days and elephants 

 can tell very well whether they are fresh or old. 

 Hence our method of only going in a straight line 

 each day, intersecting the country lengthways, so as 

 to see if tracks of elephants crossed it in one direction 

 or in the other. 



Upon our return to camp I learned that a leopard 

 had prowled around it and that it had even carried 

 off a piece of meat. The lions had contented them- 

 selves with prowling in the neighbourhood part of the 

 night, notwithstanding the rain which fell violently. 



The rainy season is the most terrible time for 

 these large carnaria ; it is their period of hunger and 

 poverty. The presence everywhere of water has 

 scattered the animals upon which they feed ante- 

 lopes, wild-boars, and buffaloes, and in spite of all 

 their efforts they do not eat every day : nay, they 

 fast often for a week, nature having endowed them 

 with the power of going without food for a long time. 

 But there is a limit to everything, and it is when 

 they are driven wild by hunger that they approach 

 the villages, eat dogs and fowls, and, lacking these, 

 attack the inhabitants. Only, it is rare for young 

 and vigorous animals to come to that. The old ones 

 especially are man-eaters, because they no longer 

 have strength to pursue and to kill a powerful 

 animal. Otherwise, if all famished lions attacked 



