is, the lion is only dangerous when he is hungry--that is, if he is not
attacked; and if, as the Bushman said, the lion has eaten sufficiently,
probably not wishing to be disturbed, after his repast, by the presence
and shouts of the Bushman, the animal retires to some other spot. I was
informed that a very short time afterward, this Bushman, who told me
what I have detailed to you, was killed by a lioness, when attempting to
drive it away from its prey by shouting as he was used to do. The fact
was, that he perceived a lioness devouring a wild horse, and went up to
her as usual; but he did not observe that she had her whelps with her:
he shouted; she growled savagely, and before he had time to retreat, she
sprang upon him and tore him to pieces."

"The lion does not prey upon men, then, although he destroys them?"

"Not generally; but the Namaqua people told me that, if a lion once
takes a fancy to men's flesh--and they do, after they have in their
hunger devoured one or two--they become doubly dangerous, as they will
leave all other game and hunt man only; but this I can not vouch for
being the truth, although it is very probable."

"If we judge from analogy, it is," replied the Major. "The Bengal tigers
in India, it is well known, if they once taste human flesh, prefer it to
all other, and they are well known to the natives, who term them
man-eaters. Strange to say, it appears that human flesh is not wholesome
for them; for their skins become mangy after they have taken to eating
that alone. I have shot a 'man-eater' from the back of an elephant, and
I found that the skin was not worth taking."

"The Namaquas," replied Swinton, "told me that a lion, once enamored of
human flesh, would, in order to obtain it so far overcome his caution,
that he would leap through a fire to seize a man. I once went to visit a
Namaqua chief, who had been severely wounded by a lion of this
description--a man-eater, as the Major terms them,--and he gave me the
following dreadful narrative, which certainly corroborates what they
assert of the lion who had once taken a fancy to human flesh.

"The chief told me that he had gone out with a party of his men to hunt:
they had guns, bows and arrows, and assaguays. On the first day, as they
were pursuing an elephant, they came across some lions, who attacked
them and they were obliged to save their lives by abandoning a horse,
which the lions devoured. They then made hiding-places of thick bus