TANGANYIKA LIONS 275 



we had recorded all the times of this tmprecedented 

 scene. 



The lions kept moving aroimd too. Once two 

 stood on their hind legs and wrapped their fore feet 

 aroimd one another as they pretended to fight. They 

 roared and swayed with a most terrifying reality as 

 they went through the mock combat. One walked to 

 a tree where, standing on his hind feet, he sharpened 

 his claws on the tnmk. One picked up a small stone 

 in its fore paws, and tossing it into the air, played 

 with it as a kitten will play with a ball of yam. 

 Several were busy taking their morning baths by 

 licking their fur exactly as a cat would do. One 

 seemed to have a thorn or chigger in his toe. He 

 spent half an hour trying to get it out. I thought of 

 the fable of the man who took the thorn from the 

 lion's paw and of the way he was repaid by the lion. 

 But I did not have the nerve to try it. 



After an hour of this sort of thing, Osa suddenly 

 nudged me and motioned violently behind us. I 

 turned to find that three more lions had come up 

 along our line of retreat and were standing but a few 

 feet away quietly watching the photographing of their 

 friends. They lay down as we looked at them and 

 several of the others began to skit around to where 

 they were. 



In three minutes we were completely surrounded 

 by lions. 



