ch. xi] MAN-EATING LEOPARDS 285 
quite as tame as a domestic cow, was picketed, now 
here, now there, about us. Horne was breaking it to 
drive in a cart. 
During our stay another District Commissioner, 
Mr. Piggott, came over on a short visit. It was he who, 
the preceding year, while at Neri, had been obliged to 
undertake the crusade against the rhinos, because, quite 
unprovoked, they had killed various natives. He told 
us that at the same time a man-eating leopard made its 
appearance, and killed seven children. It did not attack 
at night, but in the daytime, its victims being the little 
boys who were watching the flocks of goats ; sometimes 
it took a boy and sometimes a goat. Two old men 
killed it with spears on the occasion of its taking the last 
victim. It was a big male, very old, much emaciated, 
and the teeth worn to stumps. Horne told us that a 
month or two before our arrival at Meru a leopard had 
begun a career of woman-killing. It killed one woman 
by a bite in the throat, and ate the body. It sprang on 
and badly wounded another, but was driven off in time 
to save her life. This was probably the leopard Heller 
trapped and shot, in the very locality where it had com¬ 
mitted its ravages. It was an old male, but very thin, 
with worn teeth. In these cases the reason for the 
beast’s action was plain : in each instance a big, savage 
male had found his powers failing, and had been driven 
to prey on the females and young of the most helpless of 
animals, man. But another attack of which Piggott 
told us was apparently due to the queer individual 
freakishness always to be taken into account in dealing 
with wild beasts. A Masai chief, with two or three 
followers, was sitting eating under a bush, when, abso¬ 
lutely without warning, a leopard sprang on him, clawed 
him on the head and hand without biting him, and as 
