204 
THE LION. 
steps, but saw a lion, which had caught scent of 
me, looking about for his prey. I, of course, 
made for the old ford, when, after throwing in, as 
customary, some stones to frighten the crocodiles 
away, I hastened to the other side, glad enough 
to get the watery monsters between the lion and 
myself. The lions in this part of the country,” the 
Missionary adds, “ having gorged on human flesh, 
do not spend time in looking at the ‘human eye,’ 
as some are said to do, but seek the easiest and 
most expeditious way of making a meal of a man.” 
Moffatt, I may here mention, was at this time 
in a region that had recently been ravaged by 
the Matabili, one of the fiercest and most un¬ 
relenting of African tribes, and whom he else¬ 
where paints in the very blackest of colours. His 
wmrds are :— 
ec They were not satisfied with simply capturing 
cattle; nothing less than the entire subjection or 
destruction of the vanquished would quench their 
insatiable thirst for power. Thus, when they 
conquered a town the terrified inhabitants w r ere 
driven in a mass to the outskirts, when the parents 
and all the married women were slaughtered on the 
spot. Such as dared to be brave in the defence 
of their homes, their wives, and their children, 
were reserved for a still more terrible death ; dry 
grass, saturated with fat, w T as tied round their 
naked bodies, and then set on fire. The youths 
and girls were loaded as beasts of burden with 
the spoils of the town, to be marched to the 
homes of the victors. If the town was in an 
