African Nature Notes and Reminiscences (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III NOTES ON THE LION The lion?Native names for?Character of?Death of Ponto? Picture in Gordon Cumming's book?Death of Hendrik? Number of natives killed by lions?Usual mode of seizure? A trooper's adventure?Poisonous nature of lion's bite?Story of the Tsavo man-eaters?Death of Mr. Ryall?Story of the tragedy?Precautions by natives against lions?Remains of a lion's victim found?Four women killed?Lion killed?Carcase burned?Story of the Majili man-eater?Man-eating lions usually old animals?Strength of lions?Large ox killed by single lion?Buffaloes killed by lions?Ox slowly killed by family of lions?Lions usually silent when attacking and killing their prey?Camp approached by three lions?Various ways of killing game?Favourite food of lions?Giraffes rarely killed by lions?Evidence as to lions attacking elephants?Michael Engelbreght's story?Mr. Arnot's letter describing the killing of an elephant cow by six lions. Of all the multifarious forms of life with which the great African Continent has been so bountifully stocked, none, not even excepting the half-reasoning elephant or the armed rhinoceros, has been responsible for such a wealth of anecdote and story, or has stirred the heart and imagination of mankind to such a degree, as the lion?the great and terrible meat-eating cat, the monarch of the African wilderness, by night at least, whose life means constant death to all his fellow-brutes, from the ponderous buffalo to the light-footed gazelle, and fear, and often destruction too, to the human inhabitants of the countries through which he roams. Chap, 1n A TERRIFYING BEAST 45 How often has not the single word Simba, Tauw, Shumba, Silouan, or any other native African synonym for the lion, sent the blood tingling through the veins of a European t...