GLUTTONY. 
33 
Moffatt also seems to have been “ taken aback ” 
bj the gluttony of the lion. After describing an 
attack made on his party by one of these beasts, on 
which occasion it not only carried off a cow, but ate 
up the poor creature within gunshot of the bivouack 
fire, he goes on to say : 
“ When it was light we examined the spot, and 
found, from the foot-marks, that the lion was a 
large one, and had devoured the cow himself. I 
had some difficulty in believing this, but was fully 
convinced by the Baralongs pointing out to me that 
the foot-marks of the other lions had not come 
within thirty yards of the spot: two jackals only 
had approached to lick up any little leavings. The 
men pursued the “ spoor,”* to find the fragments 
where the lion had deposited them, while he retired 
to a thicket to sleep during the day. I had often 
heard how much a large hungry lion could eat, but 
nothing less than a demonstration would have con¬ 
vinced me that it was possible for him to have 
eaten the flesh of a good-sized heifer, and many of 
the bones besides, for scarcely a rib was left, and 
some of the marrow-bones were broken as with a 
hammer.”f 
course the appetite of one in a state of nature, who can only eat his 
fill occasionally, cannot be compared with that of one imprisoned. 
* Gerard, when speaking of the track of the lion, says : “ Place 
your hand upon the foot-marks, and if the claws of the animal are 
not covered by the fingers when spread out, it is a male and 
full grown; if your hand covers the track, it is a lioness or a young 
lion.” 
t “ The excrement of the lion,” says Gerard, “ is white, and filled 
with large fragments of bone, If these are of the thickness of one’s 
D 
