The Lions of Lake Edward 



down, showing on it after a recent shower — and also along 

 the two tracks I have described— innumerable broad pug 

 marks of lions. The pit itself was scored on all sides near 

 the top by a network of deep scratches in the hard clay. 



The natives of Nyasaland and Rhodesia have many super- 

 stitions regarding lions, principal among which is their belief 

 in the transmigration of the souls of their dead chiefs into 

 the bodies of lions, and on this account natives there will give 

 little or no information or help to the would-be lion hunter. 

 However, after some persuasion, I elicited the following 

 facts to account for the curious discovery I had made. 



It appeared that two months before I arrived at the 

 village, four lion cubs had fallen into the game pit and on 

 being found next morning were speared and carried to the 

 hut of the village headman, where they were skinned. From 

 this time onwards the lion and lioness —father and mother 

 of the cubs — never ceased to haunt the vicinity of the village, 

 and almost nightly one or the other paced back and forth 

 along the track to the pit, and from the pit to the hut and 

 back again, searching for their lost cubs. At intervals, no 

 doubt, the mother would claw away at the edge of the pit, 

 perhaps fancying that her young ones were still there. While 

 she did this she uttered the moaning calls I have described. 



This was not quite all, for the lions, finding game was 

 becoming scarce in the vicinit}', took to man-eating and 

 had already killed and eaten the headman of the village and 

 one of his wives. Thus was their revenge complete ! 



On the Ruindi River and on the mountains and plains 

 surrounding it, are to be found large numbers of lions, giving 

 the impression that all the lions for a radius of many miles 

 had collected in this one spot. They started to entertain us 



109 



