MAN-EATERS. 
25 
in the interior never burying their dead, but un¬ 
ceremoniously leaving the corpses of tlieir friends 
exposed in the forest, or on the plain, as the case 
may be, a prey to wild beasts or the vulture ; and 
I can readily imagine that a lion thus “blooded,” 
so to say, would have little hesitation, when oppor¬ 
tunity presented itself, of springing upon and carry¬ 
ing off the traveller or native that came in his 
way. 
But the practice of getting rid of the dead in the 
way spoken of does not exist in all parts of the in¬ 
terior, where, nevertheless, “ man-eaters ” are to 
be found. I am therefore inclined to believe that 
the habit of certain lions making a meal of a man, 
when they can get hold of him, arises rather from 
incapacity on their part to secure their ordinary 
prey than from anything else; and I have the greater 
reason to think this is the case, since young lions 
are seldom found to indulge in human food. When 
the beast becomes crippled, whether from wounds 
or old age, and is no longer able to grapple with the 
wild animals of his native haunts, it is only reason¬ 
able to suppose he will seize the first and most 
favourable opportunity of satisfying his hunger, and 
this the exposed situation of the native villages 
too often affords him. 
Strangely enough, the lion, it is confidently 
asserted, would rather dine off a black man than a 
white, and the cause assigned is somewhat singular. 
“ The beast in question,” says Thunberg, “ had 
much rather eat a Hottentot than a Christian 
