The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1912-05-24

j.. H. - SlSpudHs do II ulOSL udH6eI-
the city Gus. Perhaps | have been un.
iate In encounters with the lion, and
i Jo,o +bs makes him appear anything but the
4 lasts" that he is so popularity supposed
lleTS IL yariably experienced the greatest dan
M =" ting where elephants were concerned.
WJ Eu~x- have never had any serious trouble.
XR fact | have rather a ~sneaking contempt for
7 tbem. for they are harmless except when they
are wounded and followed into the long grass, or
IN the case of a lioness with cubs. So great a
contempt have the men in East Africa for them
that they have now taken to hunting them on
horseback. riding them down and shooting them
with reyolvers.
shall endeavor to show why the hunters OF
Africa look so lightly upon these tawny beasts
of the Jungle. I must confess, unless | be mis-
understood, that lions may be as dangerous and
even more so than other animals of the plains or
forests, under certain circumstances, but 1t has
never ben my lot to experience any great dan
ger from them. This Is primarily due to an in
born caution begot as the result of seven years
hunting in the wilderness of tropical Africa.
At times there are man-eaters at large, but for
the most part they are lions that have tasted
blood or that are too old to hunt their natural
prey, the zebras.
Man.eaters are a rarity rather than otherwise
in East Africa and Uganda. In fact | know Of
only one case Wnere a WHlte man mas Deen eat
en- by a lion during the whole seven years Of my
residence in East Africa. The story of this Is
dreadful enough in its pitiless detail, but there
is a touch of humor in the story, notwithstand-
ing.
was stationed at a small outlying government
post early in 1904, when a native came In one
day and reported that a white man, who had
been prospecting for land, had disappeared and
left his caravan Of porters almost starving some
Ja.z J,ort orror froro NV most T hor+apod ont
to search for the man and to relieve the porters
from their predicament.
On my arrival at the camp l found that the
porters had no idea what had become Of their
master. At first l suspected foul play, but later
came to the conclusion that the man had fallen
a victim to a providing beast of the jungles. |
instituted a close search and eventually found
the head and shoulders of the poor fellow.
He had been eaten by a lion, of that there
could be no mistake, judging by the remains.
The remnants Of the body were in a bad state
of decomposition and / had them placed In a
packingcase for burial. On my way to the grave
to perform the burial service I was almost over
come with laughter, despite the sad occasion,
by observing on the packingcase coffin the stem
cned words, Keep In a cool place" "Stow away
from the boilers" The packing-case had been
used to ship cans of butter to East Africa. hence
the painted signs.
The natives occasionally fall victims to the
depredations of lions, but the white man rarely
does for some unknown reason. Even then the
deaths are more often due to gangrene setting
In where men have been mauled and rarely from
actual direct killing. a
/ remember well my first meeting with a lion.
I was coming home from a dinner party late at
night in NairobI, the capital of East Africa, and
had decided to inspect one of my military guards
on the government railway buildings. When |
had approached near enough to the sentry to
hear what was going on, I was surprised to hear
him banging the corrugated iron wall of the
building with the butt end of his Martini-Henri
rife. He was shouting "Shoo! shoot" at the top
of his voice.
I ran toward him to discover what was the
matter,
"Why are you making this noise, you fool?"
l cried.
81 lion, sir. very near. eating a zebra" he re-
piled.
l ran forward and there, sure enough, was a
big black-maned lion. in the bright moonlight,
eating a zebra within fifty yards of the sentry.
He had evidently chased the zebra into the
township, killed 1t and was now happily taking
his supper. He paid not the slightest attention
to the sentry's noise, but kept on tearing great
masses of flesh from the zebras carcass. purring
loudly all the time Hike a huge cat.
My sympathy was with the sentry, for he dare
not leave his post and he dare not fire az the
noon, for he was uncertain as to the accuracy OF
his old weapon, which had been condemned for
many years by the government and was now
totally unfit for use.
Telling the sentry to take advantage OF the
safety offered him at the top OF a nearby lamp
post, I fastened to my house to get my sporting
rife. In order to do this I had to pass within
one hundred yards of the lion. who paid no atten-
ton to me at all. I hurried back to the spot
with my trusty rifle and fred at the lion, badly
It He dashed off into the plains be-
hind the town, emitting angry roars as he went.
decided to follow him for a time at least but
after a firing chase he outdistanced me and |
was forced to return to bed.
Next morning | rode out into the plains and
searched for him. l soon picked up his spoor
and In two hours had killed my first lion within
: few miles Of Nairobi township. He was a very
line specimen and well worthy of my initial e-
lott in Hon-hunting. l was Justly proud of my
Acnlevement, but had to submit to a consider
amount Of good-natured chaff from my
officials for being so keen as to hunt my
nrst lion by moonlight in the streets Of the town.
On another occasion a young lion cub was
Iound by a party OF us under the raised floor of
me eorrugatediron postoffce building in the
nam street Of Nairobi. It had apparently come
INTO town with its mother to view 1t by night
md had probably been frightened by something