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THE LION IN SOUTH AFRICA 323 
mate, and the party probably consisted of an old lion and four 
lionesses, as there were no cub spoors. The carcase of the 
buffalo, from which almost all the meat had been eaten, had 
been disembowelled in the usual neat and cleanly manner, and 
at a distance of some ten yards off it stood two mounds, ap- 
parently of earth and grass. I pointed these out to my young 
friend, and said, ‘ The lions have buried the paunch and entrails 
of the buffalo beneath those mounds.’ This work had been 
done most effectually, a space of several yards square having 
been cleared of grass, all of which, together with a great deal of 
earth, had been piled up on the two mounds. Wishing to sit 
up that night and watch over the carcase, we did not at the 
moment disturb the earth and grass-covered heaps or do any- 
~ thing which might have aroused the suspicions of the lions, but 
rode back to our waggon, and returning at once with some 
Kafirs built a shelter at the foot of a tree, a few yards from the 
carcase of the buffalo, in which Mr. Jesser Coope and myself 
took up our positions for the night, the Kafirs returning to the 
waggon. However, strange to say, the lions never put in an 
appearance, and so our watch was in vain and we neither saw 
nor heard anything more of them. On the following morning 
I commenced to turn over the heaps in which I thought the 
paunch and entrails were hidden, in order to get some of the 
large horned dung beetles which are common in this part of 
Africa, and I very soon found to my surprise that, though the 
vegetable contents of the paunch and entrails had been hidden 
from view, there was no animal matter there whatever, so that 
I cannot but conclude that in this instance, at any rate, the 
lions had eaten all the animal portions of the paunch and 
entrails of a recently killed animal. 
Two instances have come under my notice of lions eating 
4 the remains of one of their own species, and I think that when 
| hungry they would never be above such acts of cannibalism, but 
they would probably prefer something else, just as a shipwrecked 
sailor would prefer Polar bear to a steak off the comrade who 
had drawn the fatal lot. But with lions, as with shipwrecked 
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