The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-01-15
lIons ruRN MAN EAruRa
Hunger Drives Them TO Prey on A.
rlean Natlves-Whole Villages
Deserted by Their inhabitants
for Eaar Of the Lima

Deserted by Their Inhabitants
for Fear Of the Lions.
A new terror has befallen some Of
the districts OF Nyasaland, the Bril-
tish colony lying among the western
shore of Lake Nyasa. In this region
game has never been plentiful and the
supply 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 lions are not so numer-
GUS there as they are IN British East
Africa. But the natives are in ter
ror, owing to the fact that the AMI
mails now look upon them as an ex-
cellent source of food supply. The
evil at present is greatest in the dis
trict which lies between the govern.
ment stations of Ngara and Dowa In
the high country west of Lake Nyasa
In this locality during the last year
the lions have become scourge.
These natives have surrounded all
their villages with stockades at least
fifteen 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
Into the huts, usually by tearing
away the roof thatch, and carried OFF
natives. Even those not attacked are
usually too terrorstricken to offer re-
sistance.
A party OF whites travelling through
this region In May last observed many
small villages deserted by their in-
habltants, although the huts were still
quite new. On asking the reason the
answer was Invariably the same
The people could no longer re-
main. 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 anil
mails; at another a man and two
girls, and 50 on.
The lions that are committing
these ravages are believed TO have
been driven to prey upon human be-
ings only by hunger, for name eating
lions have not often terrorized this
region. Most lions are not the fero-
cious beasts they have been thought
to be.
They run of into the jungle at the
sight OF human being and never at
tack man unless wounded or hunt
ed. But with the man-eating lion II
is different.
H0 lies in hiding all day, and at
night fires, guns and noise will not
keep him off. He springs into
group of natives and carries one of
before the others have time to make
resistance.
He enters tens without fear, clawing
away the fastenlngs When the man
eaters attacked the laborers on the
Uganda railroad everybody built plat
forms and slept on them at least
twenty feet from the ground.
All that is necessary to turn an or
dinary 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 human body that
a 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. TheE he becomes man eater
a terrible evil.
This is the gravest feature in the
present situation In Nyasaland The
lions are being turned into man eat.
ers OF course this state of affairs
has melted the colonial authorities to
make every effort to destroy the lions.
New York Sun.