The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1908-10-30
LIONS TURN MAN EATERS.
Hunger Drives Them TO Prey on
African Natives.

A new terror has bcfallen some OF
the districts of Nyasaland, the British
colony lying along the western shore
of Lake Nyasa. In this region game
has never been plentiful and the sup
ply has been still further depleted by
excessive hunting in the last few
years. The result is that the natural
food of lions is becoming scarce and
they have been driven by hunger TO
prey upon the natives.
Fortunately the lions are not so
numerous there as they are In British
East Africa. But the natives are In
terror, owing TO the fact that the ami
mails now look upon them as an excel
lent source OF food supply The evil
at present lis greatest In the district
which lies between the Government
station Of Ngara and Dowa In the high
country west OF Lake Nyasa.
In this locality during the last year
the lions have become a scourge.
These natives have surrounded all
their villages with stockades at least
Is feet high. the tops of which are
thickly woven with thorns.
These precautions seem TO afford no
security. Lions have repeatedly
climbed over the stockades. broken In
TO the huts. usually by tearing away
the roof thatch, and carried of natives.
Even those not attacked are usually
too terror stricken TO OFFER resistance.
A party OF whites travelling through
this region in May last observed many
small villages deserted by their in
habitants, although the huts were still
quite new. On asking the reason the
answer was invariably the same:
The people could no longer remain.
The lions have become SO bad that we
are all afraid we will be killed.
At one village three women had been
killed and eaten by these animals; at
another a man and two girls, and so
on.
The lions that are committing these
ravages are believed TO have been driy-
en- to prey upon human beings only by
hunger. for man-eating lions have not
often terrorized this region Most
lions are not the ferocous beasts they
have been thought to be.
They run off into the jungle at the
sight OF a human being and never at
tack a man unless wounded or hunted.
But with the man-eating lion 1t is diff
ferent
He lies in hiding all day. and at
night fires. guns and noise Will not
keep him of. He springs into a group
of natives and carries one off before
the others have time to make resist
ance
He enters tents without fear, claw
ing away the fastenings. When the
man eaters attacked the laborers on
the Uganda Railroad everybody built
platforms and slept on them at least
20 feet from the ground.
All that is necessary 10 turn an
ordinary lion into one Of the man-eat-
ing sort is for him TO acquire taste
for human flesh He may first feed
on the remains of a human body that
n man eater has left and as soon as he
learns that the human kind is easy to
kill he is likely TO attack men, women
or children in preference TO any OF the
game that has been his food. Then he
becomes a man eater. a terrible evil
This is the gravest feature in the
present situation in Nyasaland. The
lions are being turned into man eaters.
OF course. this state OF affairs has in
cited the colonial authorities 10 make
every effort TO destroy the lions.-New
York Sun.