Chap. VII. THE LIOX. 137 



dread of the Bushmen and Bakalahari, as soon as either disease or 

 old age overtakes him, he begins to catch mice and other small 

 rodents, and even to eat grass ; the natives, observing undigested 

 vegetable matter in his droppings, follow up his trail in the cer- 

 tainty of finding him scarcely able to move under some tree, and 

 despatch him without difficulty. The grass may have been eaten 

 as medicine, as is observed in dogs. 



That the fear of man often remains excessively strong in the 

 carnivora is proved from well-authenticated cases in which the 

 lioness, in the vicinity of towns where the large game had been 

 unexpectedly driven away by fire-arms, has been known to assuage 

 the paroxysm of hunger by devouring her own young. It must 

 be added, that, though the effluvium which is left by the footsteps 

 of man is in general sufficient to induce lions to avoid a village, 

 there are exceptions ; so many came about our half-deserted 

 houses at Chonuane while we were in the act of removing to 

 Kolobeng, that the natives who remained with Mrs. Livingstone 

 were terrified to stir out-of-doors in the evenings. Bitches also 

 have been known to be guilty of the horridly unnatural act of 

 eating their own young, probably from the great desire for animal 

 food, which is experienced by the inhabitants as well. 



When a Hon is met in the daytime, a circumstance by no 

 means unfrequent to travellers in these parts, if preconceived 

 notions do not lead them to expect something very " noble," or 

 " majestic," they will see merely an animal somewhat larger than 

 the biggest dog they ever saw, and partaking very strongly of the 

 canine features ; the face is not much like the usual drawings of 

 a lion, the nose being prolonged like a dog's ; not exactly such as 

 our painters make it, though they might learn better at the 

 Zoological Gardens ; their ideas of majesty being usually shown 

 by making then lions' faces like old women in nightcaps. When 

 encountered in the daytime, the lion stands a second or two 

 gazing, then turns slowly round, and walks as slowly away for a 

 dozen paces, looking over his shoulder ; then begins to trot, and, 

 when he thinks himself out of sight, bounds off like a greyhound. 

 By day there is not, as a rule, the smallest danger of lions which 

 are not molested attacking man, nor even on a clear moonlight 

 night, except when they possess the breeding aro^yv) (natural 

 affection) ; this makes them brave almost any danger ; and if a 



