XVII LIONS ON THE ATHI PLAINS 205 
lion and spoil the skin, for the destruction of which 
these ravenous birds are capable, even in the space 
of only a few minutes, is almost beyond belief. I 
accordingly returned to the dead beast and sat down 
astride of him. I had read that a frontal shot at a 
lion was a very risky one, and on carefully examin- 
ing the head it was easy to see the reason ; for owing 
to the sharp backward slope of the forehead it is 
almost impossible for a bullet fired in this manner to 
reach the brain. As there were lots of lions about 
in this district and as | wanted to bag some more, | 
set myself to think out a plan whereby the risk of a 
frontal shot might be got rid of. About a fortnight 
afterwards I had an opportunity of putting my 
scheme into practice, happily with most excellent 
results ; this, however, is another story, which will 
be told later on. 
I next commenced to skin my trophy and found it 
a very tough job to perform by myself. He proved 
to be a very fat beast, so I knew that Mahina would 
make a few honest and well-earned rupees out of 
him, for Indians will give almost anything for lion 
fat, believing that it is an infallible cure for rheuma- 
tism and various other diseases. When at length 
the skinning process was completed, I waited 
impatiently for the return of Mahina, who had by 
this time been gone much longer than I expected. 
It israthera nerve-shattering thing—I am speaking 
