The Lion and the Elephant. Charles John Andersson
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destroys the huge white rhinoceros, an animal which all but rivals the elephant in regard to strength and bulk. His words are:
"Maintes fois trouvai-je des rhinocéros de la plus haute taille, que ni leur poids, ni leur force, ii leur fureur, n'avaieut pu préserver de la mort. La place de combat était visible; partout elle était foulée, et I'empreinte du lion s'y lisait sur chaque point,"
This, however, is quite contrary to my own ex- perience, and that of some of the most celebrated African hunters. As a rule, indeed, lions arc said to make themselves scarce where the rhinoceros abounds. Occasionally, it is true, the lion will surprise and destroy the young of this animal as well as that of the elephant; but even the hyena is known to accomplish this feat.
Unless the rhinoceros be previously wounded, I myself am doubtful if the lion ever ventures to attack the adult animal; and even if it be maimed, he would not always seem to prove the victor. I judge so because when on one occasion I was fol- lowing the spoor of a black rhinoceros (which is greatly inferior in size and strength to the white) that I had wounded on the preceding day, I came
SAID TO EAT HIS MATE.
to a spot where one, if not two lions, probably taking advantage of his crippled condition, bad evidently attacked him, and, after a desperate scuffle, bad been compelled to beat a precipitate retreat. In this case, however, the wounded animal would appear to have been aided by a companion, who had evidently only left him when he could walk no further. This is the sole instance that has come to my knowledge of the lion having the daring to attack the rhinoceros, though I have seen it stated in print that he not only frequently assails, but even masters that horned monster.
Once in a time, moreover, the lion kills and eats his brother lion. On only a single occasion, how- ever, has an instance of the kind come to my know- ledge. This was when I was on my way to the Lake Ngami. On a certain night we had badly wounded a lion, which retreated growling into the bush, and shortly afterwards a whole troop of lions rushed on their disabled brother, and tore him to pieces.
And once in a time the lion makes a meal of his mate, an instance of which came under my personal notice; it occurred thus:—
Early one morning a herdsman of ours came run- ning up to us in great fright, and announced "that a lion was devouring a lioness." We thought at first that the man must be mistaken, but on proceeding to the spot found his story to be perfectly true, and that only the skull, the large bones, and the skin of the animal were left. On examining the ground more closely, the fresh remains of a young spring-
THE LION.
bok were discovered. We, therefore, conjectured that the lion and lioness being very hungry, and the antelope not proving a sufficient meal for both, they had quarreled, and that he, after killing his wife, had coolly eaten her also. And certainly, a most substantial breakfast it must have been.
The lion is very destructive to the cattle and sheep of the colonists and natives, especially when several of them are in company, and many in- stances have come to my knowledge where a troop of these beasts have dashed into the fold and destroyed a number of oxen equal to their own. One night, indeed, when on my way from Damara land to the Cape, and close to my bivouac, five lions broke into a kraal belonging to a famous hunter, afterwards in my employ, and slaughtered no fewer than five cows.
But great as are the ravages of the lion amongst the domestic animals of Southern Africa, they are trifling in comparison with those the inhabitants of Algeria have to complain of, which, as will hereafter be shewn, are something terrible.
The lion, as is known, becomes occasionally a regular "man-eater," and when such is the case proves a dreadful scourge to the country. Happily, however, not one lion perhaps in fifty can properly come under the above denomina- tion.
Various reasons are assigned for lions becoming "man-eaters." Some imagine they first acquire the taste for human flesh (which subsequently they are said to prefer to that of all other) to certain tribes
MAN-EATERS.
in the interior never burying their dead, but un- ceremoniously leaving the corpses of their friends exposed in the forest, or on the plain, as the case may be, a prey to wild beasts or the vulture; and I can readily imagine that a lion thus "blooded," so to say, would have little hesitation, when oppor- tunity presented itself, of springing upon and carry- ing off the traveller or native that came in his way.
But the practice of getting rid of the dead in the way spoken of does not exist in all parts of the in- terior, where, nevertheless, "man-eaters" are to be found. I am therefore inclined to believe that the habit of certain lions making a meal of a man, when they can get hold of him, arises rather from incapacity on their part to secure their ordinary prey than from anything else; and I have the greater reason to think this is the case, since young lions are seldom found to indulge in human food. When the beast becomes crippled, whether from wounds or old age, and is no longer able to grapple with the wild animals of his native haunts, it is only reason- able to suppose he will seize the first and most favourable opportunity of satisfying his hunger, and this the exposed situation of the native villages too often affords him.
Strangely enough, the lion, it is confidently asserted, would rather dine off a black man than a white, and the cause assigned is somewhat singular. "The beast in question," says Thunberg, "had much rather eat a Hottentot than a Christian
THE LION.
—perhaps because the Hottentot, being besmeared with fat, always stinks,* and because, as he never eats salt or spices, the juices of his body are not so acrid."
In certain parts of Southern Africa that have been devastated and partially depopulated by bloody intestine wars, lions have become so numerous and daring, and from feeding on the bodies of the slain, have acquired such a taste for human flesh, that the remaining inhabitants, to escape their clutches, have been necessitated to erect their huts in most ex- traordinary situations.
"Having travelled one hundred miles," says Moffatt, "five days after leaving Morega we came to the first cattle outposts of the Matabele, when we halted by a fine rivulet. My attention was arrested by a beautiful and gigantic tree, standing in a defile leading into an extensive and woody ravine, between a high range of mountains. Seeing some individuals employed on the ground under its shade, and the conical points of what looked like houses in miniature protruding through its ever- green foliage, I proceeded thither, and found that the tree was inhabited by several families of Bakones, the aborigines of the country. I ascended by the notched trunk, and found, to my amazement, no less than seventeen of these aerial abodes, and three
* This hint, it is to be hoped, will not be altogether thrown away by certain individuals of my acquaintance, not remarkable for their cleanly habits, so that, when they next visit the African wilds, they may be induced, if only in self-defense, to take with them a change of linen and a good supply of soap.
HOUSES OF THE BAKONES.
others unfinished. On reaching the topmost hut, about thirty feet from the ground, I entered, and sat down. Its only furniture was the hay which covered the floor, a spear, a spoon, and a bowl full of locusts. Not having eaten anything that day, and, from the novelty of my situation, not wishing to return immediately to the waggons, I asked a woman who sat at the door, with a babe at her breast, permission to eat. This she granted with pleasure, and soon brought me some locusts in a powdered state. Several more females came from the neigh- bouring roosts, stepping from branch to branch to see the stranger, who was to them as great a curiosity as the tree was to him. I then visited the different abodes, which were on several principal branches. The structure of these houses was very simple. An oblong scaffold, about seven feet wide, is formed of straight sticks. On one end of this platform a small cone is formed, also of straight sticks, and thatched with grass. A person can nearly stand upright in it; the diameter of the floor is about six feet. The house stands on the end of the oblong, so as to leave a little square space before the door. On the day previous I had passed several villages, some containing forty houses, all built