and mangy; lions become lean and
perish miserably by reason of the decay of the teeth. When a lion
becomes too old to catch game, he frequently takes to killing goats in
the villages; a woman or child happening to go out at night falls a prey
too; and as this is his only source of subsistence now, he continues it.
From this circumstance has arisen the idea that the lion, when he has
once tasted human flesh, loves it better than any other. A man-eater is
invariably an old lion; and when he overcomes his fear of man so far as
to come to villages for goats, the people remark, "His teeth are worn,
he will soon kill men." They at once acknowledge the necessity of
instant action, and turn out to kill him. When living far away from
population, or when, as is the case in some parts, he entertains a
wholesome dread of the Bushmen and Bakalahari, as soon as either disease
or old age overtakes him, he begins to catch mice and other small
rodents, and even to eat grass; the natives, observing undigested
vegetable matter in his droppings, follow up his trail in the certainty
of finding him scarcely able to move under some tree, and dispatch him
without difficulty. The grass may have been eaten as medicine, as is
observed in dogs.

That the fear of man often remains excessively strong in the carnivora
is proved from well-authenticated cases in which the lioness, in the
vicinity of towns where the large game had been unexpectedly driven
away by fire-arms, has been known to assuage the paroxysms of hunger by
devouring her own young. It must be added, that, though the effluvium
which is left by the footsteps of man is in general sufficient to induce
lions to avoid a village, there are exceptions; so many came about our
half-deserted houses at Chonuane while we were in the act of removing
to Kolobeng, that the natives who remained with Mrs. Livingstone were
terrified to stir out of doors in the evenings. Bitches, also, have been
known to be guilty of the horridly unnatural act of eating their
own young, probably from the great desire for animal food, which is
experienced by the inhabitants as well.

When a lion is met in the daytime, a circumstance by no means unfrequent
to travelers in these parts, if preconceived notions do not lead them
to expect something very "noble" or "majestic", they will see merely an
animal somewhat larger than the biggest dog they ever saw, and partaking
very strongly of the canine features; the face is not