320 BIG GAME SHOOTING . 
with a lantern, he called out, ‘Don’t shoot now, the lion is lying 
on me’; this was translated by the interpreter, and presently 
the plucky fellow again spoke and said, ‘ Now fire, she’s standing 
up over me.’ Three shots were then fired into the lioness, which 
was very badly wounded, and ultimately killed the next morn- 
ing. The wounded native was then pulled back into the camp, 
but, though conscious, he was so terribly mutilated that he died 
early the next day. The lioness was now 4ors de combat, but two 
young lions that were with her soon afterwards invaded the camp 
and attacked the horses tied on the picket-line. Five of these 
broke away all tied together, and all five were more or less 
scratched and bitten, two of them very severely. None were 
killed, however, and ultimately all of them recovered. Later 
on one of the young lions came back to the camp, and carried 
off a saddle, which it tore all to pieces. When day broke, the 
wounded lioness was shot, but the young lions had made off, 
and were not seen. I have given this anecdote because I was 
in Umtali shortly after the return of the patrol and spoke with 
all the men who had taken part in it, and saw the horses with 
their wounds still unhealed, and the remnants of the saddle 
that had been torn all to pieces. | However, although in the 
interior of South Africa a certain number of natives are killed 
annually by hungry lions, I do not think that these animals are 
so destructive to human life as are tigers in India. Although 
cases do occur, I think it very exceptional for a lion to kill 
human beings for food except when driven to it by hunger. 
In the neighbourhood of the Pungwe river, where game of all 
kinds abounds, and where lions are also very numerous, the 
natives assured me that the lions never troubled them ; but in 
Northern Mashonaland, where game is comparatively scarce, the 
lions in 1886 became so dangerous, and carried off so many 
women whilst they were working in their cornfields, that the 
few scattered families of Mashunas living in the district to the 
north of Lo Magondi’s deserted the country. Old lions, whose 
bodily powers are on the wane, are probably the most dan- 
gerous. When they can no longer catch and pull down wild 
