xvm 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 I wanted to bag some more, I 

 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 is rather a nerve-shattering thing I am speaking 



