The Zebra, Giraffe, Eland, And Kukama
Have Been Seen Mere Skeletons From Decay Of Their Teeth
As Well As From Disease.
The carnivora, too, become diseased 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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 219 of 1070
Words from 62990 to 63244
of 306638
