Some Blood-Curdling Lion Stories.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 21 January 1890, Page 2

Some Blood-Curdling Lion Stories.

•— '..•!.!,;,;l By F. C. Selous. Lion Htritf ftt : ' yJ AND TIAVELLKR. !'• ' i " Mashuna-land and the' Sfatfuti- J nas" is the title of an injf&MtfcSg' article in the Fortnightly i6r j May£<W which is contributed by F. (LJSfaJqus, the mighty hunger., a. man fe^» ,„ 'shot wisely and well. The unf^ft.^^ tunate Mashunas are , not onljr hnrried and thinned by"th i «1r l 'icrWel liuman enemies, but they are 'IH'^* som* 4'strfcte decimated literally) by the attaokaof maineai-i^n ing lions, who , seem in their boldness of procedure to have rightly gauged the weakness and liniidj|;^ o^. 1 their prey. Mr Selous j%s^rMpa/j c this extraordinary state 01 affairs with sevaral thrilinjg'j' 1 lion/ AQ^o# c dotes reproduced befcw, and intended^! to show " that the lion isy sonietimts \-, a very daiigwotie and di*agr«bie factor in the liv^a of the. --^atiFp? of certain parts of Africa :" — . As I am often iold in England, that a lion ia not at a|| a da'tj^rous anima 1 , fpfiL npt ; t^)bie cpm^rM to * 4 : an Indian .tiger m any wa^. 1 '^'l here relate a few anecdotes 4Woufr ! ■; " ' ' man .eating lion that mi3e itsett VerV v unpleaaant to the hatiyea HViAW 1 Ott 1

the Majili river, a tributary of the central Zambesi. Ihese anecdotes I heard from one of ray own men who emne -within the sphere of this animal's influence In 1886 Henry \Yall, a half- east elephant hunter in Mr Westbeech's emp'.oy, and Zwavt Jantje, an old servant of mine, crossed the Zambesi to hunt elephants infjthe,,, country befrwUen tli.j Majili and TJngwesi i'ivei^' Thoy soon hoard from the natives that there -was a man-eating lion about, that had already killed several people, and they gaVe orders to their " boys'* in consequence to make soherm (fence) behind - their t .cwapt every night, nnd to collect pfeiity "of wood, so a ? s. j tp,kee i p up g^pd fires. There was one boy of HWry Walls •who never would "steep, with the other Kaffirs^ Crtrt ; always' lay side one of the fires by himself, all the other boyfe! ' tying together in a row. One night as Henry was lying between sleeping anjk waking. , a little before daybreak, he' thought he heard eomething like the purr, or growl of a lion close to Him, and, awaking, jumped up and called out " Here's v lion ; wake up, J^antje<" But Jantje and all the Kafirs were fast asleep, a> dit was not until they were awakened and questioned that it wns /discovered that the. man, who had been lying by himself by (lie fire was gone. Henry now felt sure thnt he had been carried off by a lion, and tli>it wftfcPhtfkrtft heard w the^ , low growl given jbyjthja.^ dread, he^ft. . as he seized his weftin^ lt immediately after ward's tlfioy all neard' ' the lion growling and crunching the dead man behind the camp. Henry and Jantje at once fired in the direction of the s< und, on which the lion retired to a safer distance with his prey. As soon aa it jtv.a£ '.hr,oa&: „ daylight the hunters twk~'w[y-kh4'*-spoor, which was easy to follow through the dewy gra«s, and before ' long came up the lion, that,, ' with head ftirnkl '-."on tifi6 side aud holding the dead imtin <by the shoulder, that his legs dragged on ground, was walking slowly along in * front of them. As soon as he be camo aware that he was being followed, he dropped the man, and half turning stood looking' at hip .' ; pursuers. H^»ry- Wall.'^wlio ifi' 6 •■' very good shot, now tried to fire, but the old mnzzle-loading elephant gun he was using snapped the cap, i when fie lion facerl right round and stood growling at him. At this juncture, Jnntje. who was a little to oue side, could not fire because there was a bush in his way, and before Henry could put another cap on the nipple one of the Kafirs who carried a gun fired and missedj •when the lion instantly turned an ran into a patch of bush, where th covert was so dense that all pursui" •was hopeless. On examination i* j was found that the dead man had ; beeu seized by the head and must 1 have been killed instantaneously, the j two upper canino teeth having been driven through his skull, whilst one of the lower ones' had entered be* .) neath the jaw and broken the jaw' bone. During the night the . cotpse . had been djgep>bow«Ue^"ab'4' all rtiQ j flesh eaten oiftl&eAleg* imcl thighs. 1 A few day3 latep the same lion attacked a family who were, sleeping in their maize field. Almost all over Africa, wherever game is , plentiful' it is customary for thejjatives, when ■ their corn is ripening, to build huts in their fiels in which they sleep and with the. help of firos and dium, and shoutin? during- the early part of tlie night keep buffaloes and antelopes from their corn. These 'huk, .;, are pn the top of the platforms raised ten or twelve feet above the ground, arid reached by a ladder. Ihe family of which I am speaking occupied, two huts, a large one built on the ground and a small one on the, f ,top a platform. The !&$& ■< ha% wa# 'occupied by a woman and her two children, while her husband slept alone in the little open hut on the top of the platform . On e night " the dread man eater of the Majali came prowling round and springing right on to the platform peized the sleeping. man, and carried him shrieking to the ground His wife ,awakened b)" the agonized cries of her husband and tb/d savage growling of the lions opened the. dqor. of her hut and rushed outileaving the two children inside. . The lion at onc|' jihe man, ,who was then deafl, and rushing on th« women quickly killed her, and ate her as'Bhe i ;lay v iieyer retp.niing to the man'rtt l^llA Af- daylight he retired into the bush, and seems not to have come back to the corpses. A short time aftei wards the liou. approached a ''sbahu village 1 mM tie forest in broad daylight. A young girl standing j nst outside the huts 1 saw him walking in tie prass, nnd called out" " Hen 's a bahron ! here's a. Bab opn ! " %tvjnyi|!; fflßQplfc ; r^jy ning'oufc to loojs.'i\-tero i jusf. \ii . tima to see t'ifi lion rush upon the girl a?id car.T.hei', n»vn.y.,' Some mdntl'Rlater, Heruy 4 A¥ all «nd Jantjo roturned from whehQsUieyJ.iad.hnon ei"i)hanthiiiiling to tho north and lo^t flno'.h r man. |: The nttick w.-is • gain n^a< c ju<-ti> ab'oirt • dayliorht;. This ' time Jaiitje^as «ivd hdo'rin'g tlh> ow «ro»v-l that n^omptimrrd t!ie nttnckjttmp)dup f| o.illi.ngont, " J:jjnt de LeeuwV<rWr "— " Thata tho /ion agn 21 '-—a-v.Vntlln Bi\e tiro'i saw om- of ih J sunding ! « itli" his hard to his heal. , , • : ; TO HE COVII.VI'FD. '