THE LION
BY F. J. JACKSON
The lion (_F. leo_), known to the natives as ‘Simba,’ when described
as ‘King of the African forests,’ is, I venture to say, altogether
misnamed, as he has neither the awe-inspiring and majestic bearing of
the elephant, nor the viciousness and indomitable pluck of the buffalo.
His roar when heard pretty close to camp on a still night is certainly
very grand, more particularly when two or more lions are together,
and this must be heard to be thoroughly appreciated. I have twice
heard a troop of lions roaring inside thick forest, close to my camp,
which was pitched just outside in the open. The continuous chorus of
roars they emitted was quite extraordinary, as it vibrated and rolled
along through the trees, the foliage of which appeared to confine and
intensify the volume of sound.
When seen out in the open there is absolutely nothing majestic in the
bearing of lions; their heads are carried low down below the line
of their backs, as they slouch along their hind-quarters have an
appearance of weakness, and when seen from behind sway and wobble from
side to side, while the up-and-down movement of their shoulder-blades
at each step, and their general appearance of looseness, do not add to
their dignity. Certainly a maned lion, when standing broadside on or
facing, with head erect, is a grand-looking beast; but when galloping
or trotting away on being disturbed, with head held low down, there is
nothing of the majestic about him--indeed he even compares unfavourably
with a rhinoceros, which, as it trots away with tail held erect, has
the merit of looking defiant, if not altogether dignified. Perhaps
lions are seen at their worst after being wounded and brought to bay,
when as they lie crouching flat to the earth, with head slightly
raised, ears held back, and mouth open, giving vent to low snarling
growls, they by no means present a noble or awe-inspiring appearance.
In East Africa the lion is essentially a game-killer. There are,
however, a few cases on record of lions having turned cattle-killers;
but I am inclined to think that in most instances they have been
driven to it by force of circumstances, on account of the scarcity
and wildness of the game. As I have said elsewhere, nearly all the
game-beasts migrate from their favourite haunts where they have been
concentrated in large herds as long as food was plentiful. Between
March and the end of July they disperse, many of them work their way
towards the coast, become scattered over a much larger area, and are
found in smaller herds. These herds of game are naturally followed by
the lions, some of which doubtless stray away occasionally from where
the game is to be found, and are driven to killing cattle, or donkeys,
or whatever else they come across. Within the last ten years several
lions have strayed as far as Mombasa, and have even crossed over from
the mainland to the island, where they have done considerable damage
amongst the cattle, &c. In 1887 a large lion which had been on the
island for several months was killed within 200 yards of the town
by Count E. de Kegl, who tied up a bullock as a bait and shot the
lion from a tree at night. Another one was killed early in the year
1893. In Ukambani and the Masai country a few cattle are occasionally
carried off by lions, but I do not think this is a common occurrence.
I have never heard of any well-authenticated instance of lions
becoming man-eaters, though I know of two cases in which a porter has
disappeared on the march, and on men being sent back next morning to
look for him, they only found his remains, and reported the spoor of a
lion close by; but native report is not to be relied on in cases like
this.
Lions when in the game country rarely go a night without something to
eat, and I venture to think that in most instances of attacks on camps
the reason is not so much their reputed natural boldness and daring,
but that they are driven to it by the pangs of hunger. But even the
cowardly skulking hyæna will enter a camp within the ring of fires
under such circumstances. Although there is, as a rule, plenty of game
in the districts in which lions are found, they no doubt, for reasons
stated above, occasionally and of necessity retire foodless and hungry.
This may also be accounted for by old age and inability to catch and
kill game. But whatever the cause of their hunger, they will always
make for the nearest water, not only to quench their thirst, but also
as being a likely place to find their prey; and in the event of a camp
being pitched close by, in which there may be cattle, donkeys, or
something equally attractive, they are prompted to attack it.
I only know of one instance of a camp being attacked at night by
a lion, and this was within my own experience. It occurred in the
waterless and also _gameless_ wilderness between Mount Kisigao and
Mitati in the Teita country, when on my way to Kilimanjaro. The night
before the attack the lion was seen close to camp by some porters who
were lying under a tree rather outside the ring of fires, and it was
evidently intent on a white donkey tied to a tree close by, which
belonged to a missionary who was travelling up with me for the sake
of protection. The donkey was therefore brought into the centre of
the camp, and the lion was only heard at intervals during the night
as it prowled around. The following night when we encamped without a
‘boma,’ the men being too tired to make one, we merely formed a circle
of fires, round which the members of each mess were for the most part
lying asleep. About midnight I was awakened by a tremendous commotion
with cries of ‘Simba! Simba!’ (lion!), and on rushing out of my tent to
investigate was told that a lion had attempted to carry off one of my
men. It appeared that this man was outside the ring of fires, when the
lion came up and grabbed him by the head as he was lying on his back
with his feet to the fire. Fortunately for him his head was enveloped
in several pieces of cloth, which he used during the day as a pad, to
protect his head when carrying a load. This cloth evidently slipped
and prevented the beast from getting a good grip of the man’s head,
and probably killing him on the spot. As it was, he received a nasty
gash just above the eyebrow, beginning at the temple and extending to
above the bridge of his nose, with another long gash across the top of
his head, corresponding to the large canine teeth, and other smaller
scratches between these two gashes. There were also cuts, though less
serious, on the other side of his head, which had been done by the
teeth of the lower jaw. Curious to say, the lion carried off the pieces
of cloth, and we never succeeded in finding them when following the
spoor for a considerable way next morning.
I also know of two cases of attacks being made on man in open daylight,
both quite unprovoked. The first was also an experience of my own.
At the time I was in command of a large caravan, and was accompanied
by Dr. A. D. Mackinnon, who was walking ahead with me on the march
through dense bush, the men straggling along in single file, doing what
is called a ‘teregeza.’ As we walked along, we noticed the spoor of
a lion on the footpath for a considerable distance, and saw where he
had left the track, and entered the bush just before coming to a small
opening, but we thought nothing of it. Some quarter of a mile or so
further on we were startled by a terrific yell and continued screaming
in the rear, and thinking that a prowling band of Masai warriors had
attacked the caravan, I snatched a Winchester repeating carbine from my
boy in exchange for a shot-gun I was carrying, and ran back followed
by the doctor with a Snider. As we ran, we met the cook and my small
tent-boy, who had been carrying my .500 Express in its waterproof case,
as I did not expect to meet with any big game in such dense bush,
which extended for miles ahead of us, and my gun-bearers had somehow
lagged behind and given the boy my rifle to carry. Both the cook and
boy were in a most abject state of speechless terror, and could only
gasp out ‘Simba!’ but when they were able to speak, they told us that
a lion had bounded out of the bush across the small open space we had
shortly before passed and had chased them. With the yell we had heard
the cook dropped the kettle with our precious supply of water, and the
boy the rifle, and both ran after us screaming all the time, too afraid
to look behind them to see whether the lion was following them or not.
Hurrying back to the scene of their adventure, we found the kettle on
the footpath, but the rifle was nowhere to be seen. However, one of the
men soon found the lion lying in the shade of a bush within 15 yards of
us, though for some little time I was unable to see it, until I looked
along the man’s arm as he pointed at it. When I made it out, I saw it
was crouching flat on the ground facing us, but could not get a good
view of its head, as there was a thick aloe sticking up just in front
of it, and I could see little else but its eyes on either side of the
stem. As my gun-bearers had not come up, I had nothing more powerful
than a .44 Winchester 12-shot carbine, so I asked the Doctor to stand
ready, told my boy to keep behind me with the shot-gun in case of a
charge, and risked a shot at its head, when away it floundered out of
the bush. As it leapt over a clump of aloes to the left I again fired,
and it answered to the shot with a growl, and disappeared from sight.
When I went up to see the effect of my first shot, which I found had
gone through the aloe, one of the men discovered my rifle lying close
to where the lion had been, having been carried thither by the lion
from the place where it was dropped by the boy, a distance of 15 yards,
and I had the mortification of finding that the brute had not only
destroyed the cover, but had broken both triggers short off, twisted
and broken the trigger-guard, and severely mauled the stock, from which
it had taken a piece out.
As this happened late in the afternoon, there was no prospect of
reaching water that night, so I gave orders to pitch camp, and not
wishing to build a ‘boma,’ which was hardly necessary, was anxious
to satisfy myself as to whether the lion was wounded, since a beast
that dared to attack in daylight might prove an unpleasant neighbour
during the night if not already wounded, more especially as we had
several donkeys with us. When the gun-bearers came up I took my 12-bore
Paradox, and, followed by the Doctor, entered the bush, and was
flicking the sharp points off the aloes with a knife, never thinking
for a moment that ‘John Bounder’ was close at hand. After going a few
yards we found a thick drop of blood on a leaf, and I felt fairly
satisfied that he would give us no further trouble during the night.
However, as there was still an hour or so of daylight we decided to go
on a little further, and I was still flicking off the aloe points and
talking to the Doctor, when we came to a small green bush, which I took
the precaution of peeping round before advancing. There lay the lion
crouched flat on the ground, within seven feet of me, with his head
between his paws.
The lion was unfortunately on my right, so that I could not fire except
from my left shoulder, a shot which I did not care to risk, any more
than I cared to walk backwards and expose the whole of my body at such
close quarters before I could get a sufficiently good view to enable
me to shoot from my right shoulder. Stepping back, I whispered to the
Doctor that the lion was quite close, and asked him to stand ready,
whilst I crept back to try and get a better view of it from another
point, but by the time I had struggled through a dense clump of aloes
the beast had slunk away under the shade of a black bush two or three
yards off, and I could only see the tip of its tail twitching from
side to side. It was quite impossible to make out which way the lion’s
body lay, even with binoculars, and a shot fired at the place where
I thought and hoped it might be had no effect. This made the beast
move off to more favourable ground, and after a short hunt one of
my gun-bearers saw it lying under a tree in a small opening. At the
same moment that I saw the lion it saw me, and stood up with a growl
broadside on, and I sent a Paradox bullet clean through both shoulders,
which dropped it dead on the spot. It was a fine full-grown beast, with
first-rate teeth and claws, but was remarkably thin. As the country
for many miles round was absolutely devoid of game, excepting a few
_Neotragus Kirkii_, this lion had in all probability wandered about
for several days without food, and was goaded on by hunger to make the
attack on the boy. On examination, I found my second shot with the
Winchester had only caught it in the hind foot as it leapt over the
aloe clump. The first shot which had gone through the aloe had missed
it clean, or had lost all power of penetration--at all events, there
was no mark of a bullet about its face or head.
The other instance of men being attacked in open daylight occurred near
Machako’s, in Ukambani, when a small caravan of some twenty porters
was attacked by a troop of twelve or thirteen lions, which they came
upon when on the march. When the lions charged out of the grass the men
dropped their loads and bolted, though, after the men had fired about
150 rounds of ammunition at them from a respectful distance, the lions
retired. After waiting an hour or two, the men plucked up courage and
returned for their loads. My friend, Captain J. W. Pringle, R. E.,
saw the loads when they were brought into the station, and found that
several of them had been severely mauled by the lions. In this instance
I am unable to account for such an unprovoked attack, unless the lions,
whilst lying asleep in the grass close to the footpath, were taken by
surprise and charged in self-defence, it being very improbable that
they were prompted by hunger, as game was very plentiful at the time.
Only two cases of lions charging after being wounded and followed up
have come under my notice. The first happened to Sir Robert Harvey when
following up a wounded lioness. This beast, which he failed to stop
as it came at him, jumped clean over him as he bobbed down to see the
result of his shot under the smoke, but fortunately missed him, and he
killed it with his second barrel.
The above instances of lions proving at all aggressive are, I think,
quite exceptional, and at all events form a very small percentage,
considering the great number of lions in the country, the fair number
that have been killed, and the still greater number that have been
wounded and got away, and I am inclined to think that both the boldness
and pluck of East African lions compare very poorly with those of
South Africa and the Somali country. Even when wounded, I have found
them anything but plucky or savage beasts. Three out of the four lions
I have myself bagged, and three others which got away wounded, never
attempted to charge, although they were all followed up into bush where
it was impossible to see them until fairly close, and in each instance
they could see me some time before I could see them, but they merely
lay and snarled, or slunk away altogether.
Lions in East Africa, when found near the coast, which is mostly thick
bush country, are for the most part maneless, or nearly so. I have
heard it suggested that the thick bush has something to do with this,
as the long hairs of the mane get pulled out and worn away, and it is
quite possible that this may be so, for the buffaloes on the coast are
also very scantily covered with hair, and are of a dull slate colour
from the skin showing through. In the Masai country lions have very
often splendid manes, and the buffaloes, even the old bulls, are well
covered with hair. This, however, may be accounted for more reasonably
by the great difference in the temperature than by the more open nature
of the country, the air of the higher altitudes being bracing and cool,
not to say cold, whilst that on the coast is moist and muggy. Lions
with both dark and light coloured manes are found in East Africa, those
found north of Machako’s being darker as a rule than those further
south.
Buffaloes and zebras are the two species of game on which lions mostly
prey. In my own experience I have come across the remains of more
buffaloes which have been killed by lions than anything else. The zebra
comes next, and then the hartebeest. Since, however, the buffaloes
have been decimated by disease, the zebra, of which there are still
countless herds, will probably stand first. Although I have carefully
examined the carcases of several buffaloes and zebras, I have never
been able to discover anything about them to warrant my expressing an
opinion as to how they had actually been killed by the lions. The most
noticeable thing about two freshly killed buffaloes and one zebra was
the terrible way in which they were lacerated about the hind-quarters,
evidently by the lions at their first spring and during the subsequent
desperate struggle before they actually killed them. In every case when
I found a fresh kill the stomach had been torn open, and the liver,
heart, and entrails had formed the first meal. On one occasion I was
attracted by vultures to the spot where a lion and two lionesses had
shortly before killed a cow buffalo, and I had a good opportunity of
watching them before I fired, as I was well concealed. The lion was
devouring the entrails, &c., and one lioness was tearing at the throat,
whilst the other, which I did not see at the time, was lying under a
bush close by, eating a fœtus calf which she had dragged out of the
cow. After shooting the lion and severely wounding a lioness, which
unfortunately got away, I carefully examined the buffalo, which was
lying on its right side, with its head twisted round until the back
of its head, and the curved points of both horns were resting on the
ground, with its nose upwards. The soft part of the nose had been eaten
off, the tongue torn out by the gullet underneath the lower jaw, and
the flesh under the uppermost foreleg was also eaten away; the tail
had been bitten short off at the root and was lying on the ground, and
a small piece of each hind-quarter just below the tail had also gone.
The stomach was torn open, the liver, heart, and part of the entrails
eaten, and the fœtus calf was also half eaten. When my men had cut
the remainder of the beast up to sell to the natives for flour, &c.,
I examined the vertebræ of the neck, but could find no signs of
dislocation. When I shot the lion he disgorged in his dying struggles
large pieces of buffalo skin, pieces of liver, entrails, and clots of
blood, and his stomach was blown out to almost bursting point with a
further accumulation of entrails, liver, blood, and pieces of flesh and
skin, besides a piece of heart so large that it is a wonder that he
managed to get it down. The zebra that I found about two hours after it
had been killed by a lion and lioness, which latter I shot after a long
hunt, had absolutely no marks on it to show how it had been killed. One
ear had been bitten off, and its hind-quarters and hocks were torn and
lacerated as if gashed by a knife, the cuts being so clean, but there
were no marks on the throat or back of the neck. With the exception of
a small piece of entrail lying on the ground, which had the appearance
of having been chewed, the whole of the inside and the soft flesh and
skin of the stomach were gone; the rest was untouched.
[Illustration: GOOD GUIDES]
In the extensive game countries of Masailand and Turkwel, a district in
the Suk country, lions are very plentiful, and may be heard at night;
but though undoubtedly numerous it is quite by chance that they are met
with. The greatest number seen at one time by myself and Dr. Mackinnon
was twenty-three. This troop was seen near Machako’s, in Ukambani, on
August 7, 1890. It consisted of three lions with splendid dark manes,
five or six lionesses and the rest cubs from three parts grown down to
the size of a fox terrier. Another large troop of eleven was seen near
Rombo, to the east of Kilimanjaro, by Mr. T. W. H. Greenfield in 1888.
Perhaps the best guides to the whereabouts of a lion are vultures.
Should these birds be seen soaring high up in the air, gradually
getting lower and lower, and finally going off in a bee line, the
sportsman should certainly follow them, as it is a sure sign that they
have detected the carcase of a dead beast. If, however, as he proceeds
in the direction they have taken, sees the vultures, marabou storks,
&c., sitting in trees, or circling round a few hundred feet up in the
air, in the event of there being no trees, it is a pretty certain sign
that a beast of prey is still at the carcase, and although it may turn
out to be only a hyæna or a lot of jackals, it is always advisable to
go up and have a look on the chance of there being lions. I was myself
attracted by vultures to three out of the four lions which I killed,
and on other occasions when I was less successful vultures were my
guides. Sitting up at night near a water-hole, provided there is no
other water nearer than 8 or 10 miles, might be well worth trying,
also sitting up a tree near a bullock or donkey tied up as a bait; but
as I have never tried either way I cannot speak from experience. For
lions I prefer a hollow Express bullet with copper tube, as they are
soft beasts, and the smashing power and shock to the system of a bullet
that flies to pieces _inside_ a beast is tremendous. The bullet should,
however, be much longer and heavier, with longer solid base, than
Eley’s ordinary Express bullet, which often flies to pieces before it
can penetrate to the vitals of even a soft beast like a lion, as I have
found to my cost on more than one occasion.
In support of my contention that the lion of East Africa is by no
means plucky or savage when wounded, I will give two examples. On both
occasions I was attracted to the lions by vultures. On the first I
found that a lion and lioness had killed a zebra in the open, and had
dragged it into a large belt of dense bush. Leaving the men outside,
and being closely followed by two gun-bearers, I got within 15 yards
of the lions before I could make out the form of the dead zebra in
the dark shade, but could see no lions. The lioness, which had been
lying down behind the kill, at that moment stood up, but as I only saw
a small patch of tawny colour through the dense foliage, I could not
tell whether it was a lion or lioness, still less whether it was a
chest, shoulder, or hind-quarter in the gloom. As, however, the lions
were evidently aware of my presence, there was no time to be lost, so,
kneeling down, I took a deliberate shot at the tawny patch. The result
was fairly satisfactory, though decidedly alarming, as she--for it was
the lioness--reared up on her hind legs with a terrific roar, fell
backwards, and disappeared from view behind the carcase of the zebra.
Not knowing whether she was dead or not, or whether she was still
behind the zebra, I listened for some time, but could hear nothing on
account of the buzzing of swarms of large red-headed bluebottle flies,
and then crawled forward very cautiously to the carcase, but found she
had gone. As there was a considerable amount of blood about, I lost no
time in following her. For a long time the lion stuck to his mate, but
finally left her, and went off by himself, after being harassed and
kept constantly on the move, which was in all probability distasteful
to him after his feed. From 12.30 to 5.30, most of the time on my hands
and knees owing to the denseness of the bush, I followed the lioness,
and kept putting her up with a low growl every 100 yards or so; but I
only once saw her--a mere glimpse when she was on the move and about
20 yards off--as she kept down wind nearly the whole time, and never
allowed me to come near enough to see her well, but slunk away with
a low growl. Finally it became too dark to see anything, so I had to
abandon the hunt for that day.
Next morning I was back at daylight, and visited a small water-hole
just outside the bush, close to where I had left her, and found from
her spoor and faint traces of blood that she had been there to drink
during the night. She had afterwards re-entered the bush and was lying
down just inside, but was disturbed by our talking, as we heard her
growl and move off. She must then have skirted along just inside the
edge of the bush, for whilst we were consulting as to the best means
of following her up, or whether we should attempt to drive her out,
she left the covert some 300 yards off on our side, and went limping
away across a small tongue of open ground towards a narrow strip of
bush, which she entered. Hurrying round with my gun-bearers in a wide
circuit to the other side, I was just in time to see her come to the
edge of the bush, but at the same time she saw me, and lay down facing
me, with her head well raised. This gave me a capital chance; a shot in
the chest rendered her _hors de combat_, and another at close quarters
finished her off. The Express bullet of the day before had caught her
on the point of the shoulder as she faced me, smashing the blade-bone
into fragments and tearing the flesh to a frightful extent. This wound
may have knocked all inclination to charge out of her, if she ever had
any; otherwise, considering the way she was harassed and the reputation
lions have for charging under such circumstances, she might have done
so, more especially as the nature of the covert in many places was
decidedly favourable for such a demonstration on her part.
The second time I was attracted to where a lion and two lionesses had
killed a cow buffalo, mentioned above. As the vultures and marabou
storks were sitting patiently waiting in a large leafless tree, I felt
pretty sure that lions were still at the kill, and I also knew before
I actually saw them that they had killed a buffalo, as the ground was
cut up in all directions by the fresh spoor of a large herd of these
beasts as they stampeded. On crawling up to a bush and looking through
it, I saw the head of the lion, as he stood on the far side of the
dead buffalo. As there was nothing but the lion’s head showing, and as
I could only get an indistinct view of one lioness as she lay, I sat
and watched them with the aid of binoculars for a considerable time,
until the lion stepped clear of the carcase and stood broadside on,
offering me a splendid shot. Aiming at his shoulder, I fired at a range
of a trifle over 100 yards, and he answered to the shot with a growl,
bounded forward a few yards, and stood behind a small skeleton bush.
At the shot the lioness stood up and looked hard in my direction, but
could not see me, and I then noticed for the first time that there
was another lioness standing under a small bush close by; but as I
could only make out the head of either of them, and could not see the
effect of my shot on the lion, I reloaded and waited. In a short time
I had the satisfaction of seeing the lion limp back to the buffalo,
dead lame, and feeling pretty confident that he would not go far (in
which I was greatly mistaken), I took a shot at the nearest lioness, as
she stood facing me. She also answered to the shot with a grand roar,
reared up in the air and fell backwards, but picked herself up and
bolted in one direction, whilst the lion and the other lioness went
off in another. These two I followed, and after a sharp run got up to
within about 80 yards of them, when the lioness turned round, having
evidently heard me. A shot at her head, which was all I could see of
her over the grass, missed her clean, and off she went, leaving her
lord and master to take care of himself. As, however, I had lost sight
of him in the grass, my gun-bearers took up the spoor, whilst I kept a
look-out ahead, and after going a short way I saw him get up from under
a bush about 120 yards off and bound away across my front, evidently
very angry, judging from the noise he made. With the right barrel I
missed him clean, and with the left merely broke his tail, but he only
went a short way and lay down. As I approached within 80 yards he stood
up and growled, but dropped down again so quickly that I could not get
a shot, and as he did this several times I told two of my gun-bearers
to stand still, so as to divert his attention from my own movements,
whilst I and my head gun-bearer crept round to a small ant-heap on the
right, which was also a little nearer to him, from which position I
hoped to get a shot at his shoulder. He, however, saw me all the time,
as there was very little covert, and as I peeped over the top of the
ant-heap, some 60 yards from him, he again stood up and growled, but
nothing more, and as he had turned and was still facing me, I took a
shot at his head with a solid bullet, not wishing to smash his skull
more than I could help. This shot, which knocked him down, hit him a
little under the right eye, broke off two of his upper molar teeth,
and lodged in the flesh of the neck, but he picked himself up, bolted
to another bush and again lay down. As he lay facing me, and crouching
close to the ground, I walked up, this time to within 40 yards of him,
and sat down to get another shot at his head; but just as I did so he
raised his head, and not wishing to damage his skin more than possible
with a .500 Express bullet, I took my .360 double Express from the
gun-bearer and fired at the centre of his throat, when the poor beast
dropped his head and lay still. On going up to him I found he was not
quite dead, but choking fast from my last shot, and as I stood over
him his side gave two or three mighty heaves, like a dog’s when in the
act of disgorging something, and out gushed part of his last meal, an
accumulation of buffalo skin, flesh, entrails, and clots of blood. This
was his last effort, and he never moved again. Leaving some of the men
to skin him, I went back to the buffalo and took up the blood-spoor of
the wounded lioness, and came across the place where she had been lying
down. She had evidently just left as I came up, as the blood leading to
the spot was quite dry from the heat of the sun, whereas that leading
away was fresh and wet.
She unfortunately kept down wind, and although desperately wounded,
she eventually managed, after going about two miles, to get into some
hard stony ground, where, as her wound had almost stopped bleeding, I
had most reluctantly to give her up. Several times I came across places
where she had rested and bled profusely, and in one small pool of blood
I picked up a piece of flat bone, about half an inch square, with a
ridge down the centre, evidently part of her shoulder-blade, which had
worked out of the bullet hole; but she never allowed me to approach
near enough to see her in the thick covert.