TANGANYIKA LIONS 271 



Presently they commenced to go to sleep. It was a 

 hot sultry day and their himting the night before 

 must have made them drowsy. The four directly 

 in front of us lay on their sides. After they had 

 completely lost consciousness they began to roll over 

 with their yellow bellies uppermost, breathing 

 heavily. The one nearest us snored in a low rhythmi- 

 cal imdertone. 



I had to pinch myself to believe that these were the 

 same species I had seen only as fighting snarling 

 maniacs, crouched with lashing tail or ready on the 

 instant to make a miirderous charge. 



As the minutes sped by and the lions took less and 

 less notice of us, my heart gradually ceased poimding 

 like a trip hammer. Every now and then Carl would 

 look up at me and bare his teeth in an "I told you 

 so" grin. 



We moved forward a few feet at a time. As we 

 continued to shorten the distance between us and the 

 lions, a few of them who were still awake raised 

 their heads, or rather turned them from side to side, 

 because their heads were upside down due to the 

 animals being flat on their backs. But their glances 

 were lazy, blinking looks containing not an atom 

 of hostility. Finally every lion was asleep — eleven 

 full-grown beauties. 



We were wondering what to do next when out of 

 the nearest donga came another lion that apparently 



