LION HUNTING ON THE KAPITI PLAINS 59 
one of the big beasts, and is rather more apt to get his charge 
home, but the risk is less to life than to limb. 
There are other animals often or occasionally danger¬ 
ous to human life which are, nevertheless, not dangerous 
to the hunter. Crocodiles are far greater pests, and far 
more often man-eaters, than lions or leopards; but their 
shooting is not accompanied by the smallest element of 
risk. Poisonous snakes are fruitful sources of accident, 
but they are actuated only by fear, and the anger born of 
fear. The hippopotamus sometimes destroys boats and 
kills those in them; but again there is no risk in hunting 
him. Finally, the hyena, too cowardly ever to be a source 
of danger to the hunter, is sometimes a dreadful curse to 
the weak and helpless. The hyena is a beast of unusual 
strength, and of enormous power in his jaws and teeth, 
and thrice over would he be dreaded were fang and sinew 
driven by a heart of the leopard’s cruel courage. But 
though the creature’s foul and evil ferocity has no such 
backing as that yielded by the angry daring of the spotted 
cat, it is yet fraught with a terror all its own; for on oc¬ 
casion the hyena takes to man-eating after its own fashion. 
Carrion-feeder though it is, in certain places it will enter 
native huts and carry away children or even sleeping adults; 
and where famine or disease has worked havoc among a 
people, the hideous spotted beasts become bolder and 
prey on the survivors. For some years past Uganda has 
been scourged by the sleeping sickness, which has ravaged 
it as in the Middle Ages the Black Death ravaged Europe. 
Hundreds of thousands of natives have died. Every effort 
has been made by the Government officials to cope with 
the disease; and among other things sleeping-sickness 
