24 
THE LION. 
bok were discovered. We, therefore, conjectured 
that the lion and lioness being very hungry, and the 
antelope not proving a sufficient meal for both, they 
had quarreled, and that he, after killing his wife, 
had coolly eaten her also. And certainly, a most 
substantial breakfast it must have been. 
The lion is very destructive to the cattle and 
sheep of the colonists and natives, especially when 
several of them are iu company, and many in¬ 
stances have come to my knowledge where a 
troop of these beasts have dashed into the fold 
and destroyed a number of oxen equal to their own. 
One night, indeed, when on my way from Damara 
land to the Cape, and close to my bivouac, five lions 
broke into a kraal belonging to a famous hunter, 
afterwards in my employ, and slaughtered no fewer 
than five cows. 
But great as are the ravages of the lion amongst 
the domestic animals of Southern Africa, they are 
trifling in comparison with those the inhabitants of 
Algeria have to complain of, which, as will hereafter 
be shewn, are something terrible. 
The lion, as is known, becomes occasionally a 
regular 6 ‘ man-eater,” and when such is the case 
proves a dreadful scourge to the country. 
Happily, however, not one lion perhaps in fifty 
can properly come under the above denomina¬ 
tion. 
Various reasons are assigned for lions becoming 
cc man-eaters.” Some imagine they first acquire the 
taste for human flesh (which subsequently they are 
said to prefer to that of all other) to certain tribes 
