CHAPTER XIV 



TANGANYIKA LIONS 



THE lion is a sportsman and a gentleman. He 

 attends to his own business and will leave you 

 alone so long as you leave him alone. Man slaugh- 

 ters him in cold blood because the lion was created 

 and ordained to live on flesh. Yet man kills nearly 

 every animal to eat." 



So did Carl Akeley speak to me one dark African 

 night on safari not long before he died and was 

 buried in the hills and jungle that he loved so well. 



The lion is a cat. You must never forget that. 

 But if you are a person who has never seen a live 

 lion in his own haunts, a lion imaggravated by the 

 ruthlessness of man, you will know him only through 

 the catch-phrase, the twisted legend and the humili- 

 ating still-picture of him as he lies helpless in death. 

 You will think of the lion as a cruel, treacherous, 

 bloodthirsty beast of prey. You will imagine him 

 slinking through the underbrush toward his victim. 

 You will picture him crunching flesh or roaring, a 

 ruthless enemy of all other animal life. 



It was now in our third year when we went south 



260 



