THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
overcomes his fear of man so far as to come to villages for goats, the 
people remark, ‘ His teeth are worn; he will soon kill men.’ They at once 
acknowledge the necessity of instant action, and turn out to kill him.” 
Had Dr Livingstone said that a man-eating lion was usually an old, 
worn-out animal, no one could have questioned the accuracy of his views; 
for, although exceptions to this rule undoubtedly occur, it is certainly the 
gradual decay of their physical powers which generally drives lions to so 
far overcome their fear and dislike of human beings as to habitually kill 
them for food. In a country where game is very abundant and lions 
plentiful, a lion or lioness which, through old age and the gradual loss of 
strength and activity, is no longer able to catch and pull down the large 
and powerful antelopes, zebras and buffaloes upon which, in the days of 
its prime it was accustomed to prey, will yet probably be able to eke out 
a living for some time by feeding on the remains of the numerous carcasses 
of animals killed by younger and stronger lions, until at last it becomes 
so weak and worn-out that it is attacked and killed by hyaenas. This, at 
least, is my reading of the fact that the natives whose small and widely 
scattered villages I visited in the neighbourhood of the Lower Pungwe 
River in 1891 and 1892, invariably told me that the lions never troubled 
them, although there were a great many of these animals about; but 
their food supply was unfailing, as game of many kinds, buffaloes, zebras, 
and antelopes, were very abundant in the same district. A few years later, 
however, when the railway was being built from Beira to Salisbury, and 
the game had been driven from the neighbourhood of the line, the lions 
became very troublesome, and over thirty work-boys are said to have been 
carried off from the construction camps before the railway was completed 
to Chimoio’s. 
Where game is not plentiful lions undoubtedly lead a very strenuous life, 
and often go hungry even when in the prime of their strength. But as their 
powers fail they must often grow desperate, and it is then that they turn 
to native villages or other haunts of men in search of food. An old and 
hungry lion or lioness will first, perhaps, kill a goat, or one of the little 
boys herding the goats, or surprise a woman going to fetch water. A 
hearty meal gives it fresh strength to commit further depredations; and 
the knowledge that a human being is not only good to eat, but also easy to 
catch and kill, confirms the newly acquired habit; so that when an old 
lion once commences to kill and eat human beings, it probably remains 
a man-eater for the rest of its life, whereas a younger animal in the 
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