In Wildest Africa -♦> 



the sun, and which in the moonlight must have attracted 

 their attention. They had evidently amused themselves 

 for a while with this plaything, for the hard surface of the 

 tortoise's shell was marked with their claws. Then they 

 had returned to their mother. I concluded that the old 

 lioness was not hungry and had no more lust for prey — ■ 

 another confirmation of the fact that lions, when sated, 

 are not destructive. This new proof seemed to me to be 

 worth all the trouble I had taken. 



The two following nights, to my disappointment, the 

 lions approached my heifer again without molesting It. 



This w^as the more annoying because I had hoped by 

 capturing the old lioness to obtain possession of all the 

 young cubs as well. 



In this case, as in many others, the behaviour of the 

 heifer was a matter of great Interest. As already remarked, 

 in most cases I made use of sick cows mortally afflicted by 

 the tsetse-fly. In many districts In German East Africa 

 the tsetse-fly, which causes the dreadful sleeping sickness 

 In man, also makes it impossible to keep cattle except 

 under quite special conditions. This heifer, then, was 

 already doomed to a painful death through the tsetse 

 illness, and the fate I provided for it was more merciful, 

 for the lion kills Its prey by one single powerful bite. I 

 observed, moreover, that the bound animal took its food 

 quite placidly and showed no signs of unrest so long as 

 the lion came up to her peaceably, as in this case. This 

 accorded entirely with my frequent observations of the 

 behaviour of animals towards lions on the open velt. 

 Antelopes out on the velt apparently take very little 



488 



