Wild Beasts and Their Ways 85 
river and near Lake Pamalombe (British Central Africa), which in 1889 were devoid 
of inhabitants owing to the terror created by one or more man-eating lions. In 
West Nyasaland and in parts of Hast Africa I have heard of troops of lions invading 
and ravaging villages on occasion, no doubt when four-footed game was scarce, and 
these hons were of both sexes and generally in the prime of maturity. But along 
the Shire river and elsewhere it was usually one individual—an oldish beast and 
solitary—which would make a particular village its special hunting ground. Some twice or 
thrice a week its toll was exacted—women usually, an old man or a child when 
nothing better offered, or a young man if he were alone and could be taken off his 
guard. The hiding place was seldom the same twice running. One day it would be 
near the water where the women went to fill their water-jars—a waving of the fleecy- 
plumed reeds, a rush, many screams (one with a note of agony in it), many broken pots, 
and one wretched woman dragged away by the head into the reed jungle: thence it 
may be (for the lion’s greater 
ease of mind) into the jungle 
of date palm, euphorbia, and 
thorn bush. At another 
time the lion crouched amid 
the partially-burnt black and 
yellow grass stems by the 
roadside, half-a-mile from the 
village. A young man is 
returning from hunting; he 
has despatched with his 
spears an antelope im a 
pitfall, and is coming back 
with a haunch of venison, 
his companions perhaps far 
behind. The prospect of a 
good feast, of wei (im the 
form of palm-sap or maize- 
| beer), web und gesang, 
Photograph by Fratelli Alniari, Florence. makes his jolly counten- 
LIONESS. ance glow as he faces the 
rosy sunset, his range of view 
circumscribed by the reeking haunch across his shoulder; he is thinking of everything 
but of a lion or imminent death, when... rush... a brief appalling sound, half snavrl, 
half roar, and he is tumbled over with a smashed skull. 
The people of this village were strangely apathetic about the question. Fish was 
abundant in the adjoining river; the soil of their gardens, yearly inundated with mver 
mud, yielded magnificent crops, and then a curious superstition clogged thew vengeance. 
Tt was surmised that the man-eater was a “were” lion and could not be fought against 
by ordinary weapons; it was either the spirit of a dead chiet animating the lion’s body 
or one of themselves—some monster who could at will assume a lion’s form to slake his 
thirst for blood.* But though they had ceased themselves to attempt the destruction of 
the man-eater, they were anxious for the white man to make an effort. The lon, 
however, was cunning enough to know that a new and more efficient force had appeared 
on the scene, and he disappeared for some time. At last, however, he was tracked down 
* At this period in Nyasaland (if not also now) there were not infrequently cases of negroes believing them- 
selves to be lions and lying in wait for their unsuspecting victims, whom they killed (with knives and clubs) and 
partially devoured. 
