African Game Trails 
529 
LION-HUNTING ON THE KAPITI PLAINS 
The dangerous game of Africa are the 
lion, buffalo, elephant, rhinoceros, and leop¬ 
ard. The hunter who follows any of 
these animals always does so at a certain 
risk to life or limb; a risk which it is his 
business to minimize by coolness, caution, 
good judgment, and straight shooting. The 
leopard is in point of pluck and ferocity 
more than the equal of the other four; but 
his small size always renders it likely that 
he will merely maul, and not kill, a man. 
My friend, Carl Akely, of Chicago, actually 
killed bare-handed a leopard which sprang 
on him. He had already wounded the 
beast twice, crippling it in one front and 
one hind paw, whereupon it charged, fol¬ 
lowed him as he tried to dodge the charge, 
and struck him full just as he turned. It 
bit him in one arm, biting again and again 
as it worked up the arm from the wrist to 
the elbow; but Akely threw it, holding its 
throat with the other hand, and flinging its 
body to one side. It luckily fell on its side 
with its two wounded legs uppermost, so 
that it could not tear him. He fell forward 
with it and crushed in its chest with his 
knees until he distinctly felt one of its ribs 
crack; this, said Akely, was the first mo¬ 
ment when he felt he might conquer. Re¬ 
doubling his efforts, with knees and hand, 
he actually choked and crushed the life out 
of it, although his arm was badly bitten. 
A leopard will charge at least as readily as 
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 occa¬ 
sionally dangerous 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 leop¬ 
ards; 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 an¬ 
ger born of fear. The hippopotamus some¬ 
times 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 
Vol. XLVI.—60 
dreaded were fang and sinew driven by a 
beast with the cruel courage of the leopard. 
But though the creature’s foul and evil fe¬ 
rocity 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 occasion the hyena takes to man-eat¬ 
ing after his 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 dis¬ 
ease 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 sleep¬ 
ing sickness, which has ravaged it as in the 
Middle Ages the Black Death ravaged Eu¬ 
rope. 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 sleep¬ 
ing-sickness camps have been established, 
where those stricken by the dread malady 
can be isolated and cease to be possible 
sources of infection to their fellows. Recov¬ 
ery among those stricken is so rare as to be 
almost unknown, but the disease is often 
slow, and months may elapse during which 
the diseased man is still able to live his life 
much as usual. In the big camps of doomed 
men and women thus established there were, 
therefore, many persons carrying on their 
avocations much as in an ordinary native 
village. But the hyenas speedily found that 
in many of the huts the inmates were a help¬ 
less prey. In 1908 and throughout the early 
part of 1909 they grew constantly bolder, 
haunting these sleeping-sickness camps, 
and each night entering them, bursting into 
the huts and carrying off and eating the dy¬ 
ing people. To guard against them each 
little group of huts was inclosed by a thick 
hedge; but after a while the hyenas learned 
to break through the hedges, and continued 
their ravages; so that every night armed 
sentries had to patrol the camps, and every 
night they could be heard firing at the 
marauders. 
The men thus preyed on were sick to 
death, and for the most part helpless. But 
occasionally men in full vigor were attacked. 
One of Pease’s native hunters had been 
seized by a hyena as he slept beside the 
camp fire, and part of his face torn off. 
Selous informed me that a friend of his, 
Major R. T. Coryndon, then administrator 
