70 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. 
against his attack, for he will, if pressed by hunger, 
force his way into the native huts at night. 
All over East and Central Africa, the idea is firmly 
imbedded in the native mind that man-eating lions 
are simply reincarnations of chiefs and medicine men, 
etc., who prowl about taking vengeance on those 
who wronged them during their lives in human 
shape. 
Innumerable cases of man-eating lions have come 
to my personal notice, and perhaps an account of a 
few of them may prove of interest. 
Some years ago, I was hunting in the neighbour¬ 
hood of the Luhanyando stream, a tributary of the 
Luwegu, where the country, being mountainous and 
full of dense bush and grassy ravines, affords excel¬ 
lent cover for lions, who, at the time, were con¬ 
stantly killing natives in these parts. 
The details of a particularly sad occurrence that 
happened in a village in this district are still vividly 
fresh in my mind, and will perhaps give the reader 
some idea of the determination, ferocity and daring 
of the King of Beasts when he has acquired a taste 
for human flesh. 
On the day previous to our arrival, one of the 
villagers had buried her husband, and she and her 
daughter, having passed the night in her mother-in- 
law’s hut, rose at early dawn, as natives usually do, 
to return to their own dwelling, which was not 
