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EASTERN ETHIOPIA 
XVI 
stories which illustrate this side of the brute’s character 
that it will be unnecessary to add to them. 
During my visit I was desirous to obtain first-hand 
information concerning the ability of lions to inflict 
crushing blows with their paws. For instance, Patterson 
relates, in his absorbing account of the events around 
a water-hole which he witnessed one night from a 
thorn-shelter or boma, that a lion struck down a zebra 
by a blow on the neck. The observer in this instance 
was many yards from the scene of this midnight 
encounter, and, although it was bright moonlight, we 
must remember that the whole event is so quick that 
it is difficult to be precise as to details. 
Two men riding in a cart drawn by two humped oxen 
were suddenly surprised by a lion springing upon the 
oxen and killing them : the lion then badly scratched 
the driver and made off. The driver’s companion 
became insane. It was gravely asserted that the lion 
killed the oxen with his paw. No further proof was 
obtainable ; the evidence is inconclusive. I can readily 
believe that, when a lion springs on the neck of a horse 
and fastens on with his teeth, the long canine teeth 
do occasionally penetrate the interspaces of the vertebrse 
and injure the spinal cord in a very vital region and 
prove instantly fatal. Roosevelt mentions a case 
bearing on this, in connection with an adventure which 
befell Captain Slatter :— 
“ The lion had sprung clean on the horse’s back, his 
fore-claws dug clean into the horse’s shoulders, his hind- 
claws cutting into its haunches, while the great fangs bit 
at the neck. After going some sixty yards the lion’s teeth 
went through the spinal cord, and the ride was over.” 
Homer knew it was the habit of lions to seize large 
animals by the neck : 
As when the lordly lion seeks his food 
Where grazing heifers range the lonely wood. 
He leaps amidst them with a furious bound, 
Bends their strong necks and tears them to the ground. 
