VII 
MAN-EATING LIONS 
79 
discovered the animal’s dead body, some seventy 
yards from the hut, and it proved to be that of a 
mangy old lioness. 
After cleansing Hyiah’s thigh with hot water, the 
natives fashioned a maschilla and carried him into 
my camp, where I immediately bathed and syringed 
the poor fellow’s wounds with disinfectants to prevent 
blood-poisoning setting in. These precautions 
proved effectual, and within six weeks Hyiah was 
able to get about again. 
Two years after this occurrence, I chanced to 
meet the headman of the village where the events 
had taken place, and he informed me that his 
kraal had not been disturbed by lions during 
the interval ; a fact which seems to prove that 
the lioness shot by Majemba had accounted 
for the three men and six women that had been 
carried off previous to the arrival of my men. 
When at the Bangalla River, some years ago, 
after elephants as usual, I heard that lions had 
killed and devoured a considerable number of 
natives in the district, and on making particular 
inquiries of the older men in the neighbourhood, 
learned from them that within five years lions 
had accounted for more than thirty people, 
actually breaking into the huts to seize their 
victims. 
About twelve years ago, while I was on the 
