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Show " - ' - . c ) rx ? -. - r- - r ;; ; ;Eiliiiig v a' 'Mail - Eating ; ; Lion: ! j By Dr. W. J. Ansorge, M. A., LL. D., M. R. C. S i L. R: C. P. i asleep; that our shouts woke him up and to his horror ho found that he himself was the one ' being carried off by the lion, and then he clasped his arms around the llon'6 neck and screamed. ... We were all wondering- why the lion did not pay us another visit, but It was explained next morning A number num-ber of Wakamba natives on their way to .Mobassa to barter their sheep and goats for cloth, beads and brass wire, had passed us. They camped for the night about half an hour farther oni The man-eater '.had visited them Instead, In-stead, and had carried off a native and devoured him. The others fled. The ! road next day bore plain evidence of their headlong' flight, being Uttered with beaDS, broken provision bags, and somo leather garments. With early dawn we left T9avo; the Injured porter we carried in a hammock. ham-mock. We saw the footprints of the lion along the dusty road apparently following the Wakamba. Two of my men declared that they saw the brute about mid day, standing panting under a shady bush by the roadside, with the tongue hanging out of his. mouth. I hurried up to them with a loaded rifle, but saw nothing except the footprints, which here turned off tho road. We made a double march and reached the camp at Ndi In safety, and saw nothing further of the lion for the rent of the Journey. The wounded man progressed favorably and on our reaching Mombasa, he , Insisted on walking In the procession, supporting himself with a stick. He refused to be carried or to be assisted by others. The safe homecoming of a caravan to Mombasa Is generally i day of rejoicing re-joicing with the porters.' Two Lions in the Grass On my fifth Journey it was Lake Nakuru I had my flrst'ehot at a lion. and leading It once more along, be anl the others saw the lions which had terrified the donkey. That night we heard lions growling round th camp, but no one was attacked. Narrow Escape' Whan Unarmed On my second visit to Fajoa, our farthest military station towards the north, another Hon Incident, fell to my lot. It was on the 25th of 'November 1S97. I bad arrived in the early morning, morn-ing, and having attended to my' medical medi-cal duties, wont' in tho afternoon unarmed, un-armed, for a walk to a narrow rocky gully which winds' thrpugh the wood. Suddenly I observed the fresh footprints foot-prints of a'llon ln the moist sandy patches between the rocks.'. The' foot prints of a young one by Its side showed It must be a lioness with her cub. Tho tracks were so fresh that It was evident the becsts had been disturbed dis-turbed by my approach, and In this Immediate neighborhood, nnd It was not pleasant to find myself unarmed and In such proximity to them. I retraced my steps pretty 9harp and boat a hurried retreat, thanking Providence Prov-idence for bringing me safely back to the station. I told tho men what I had seen, and I Inquired If they knew that there wcie Hons, so near to us. I received the disturbing news that a man-eating lion had harassed the nelghborhorlng Wanyoro village for the past month, and that it had carried car-ried off four of the villagers. Tho Inhabitants had deserted their homes en masse, and had flVd for safety to another village; but hitherto the man-eater man-eater had not visited the Soudanese settlement., Darkness sets In about 5 p. m, and though J ventured by myself only sixty yards from my hut, I found next mornlDg that for the second time I must have been pretty close to the man eater, as his track was but six thu bullets might knock some of us over. With the help of the native officers, offi-cers, we put a stop to this haphazard shooting, which was endangering our lives more than the man-eater's. On hurrying to the scene of the screams, I found that the man-eater had entered en-tered a hut, the door having foolishly been left open, and tried to carry off ono of our Soudanese soldiers. The huts are crowded together, and have a reed fence round each, and narrow path) and winding entrances lead to each separate enclosure. It! was therefore no easy matter, even for a lion, to '.carry off Its prey.' Owing to tho genoral hubbub tho 4 lion had dropped the . man. As In the Tsavo case, I was fortunately at hand to dress the wounds. There wero ten of them. A scratch, about two inches long, had splintered the heel bone. I removed a piece of the bono about tho size of a shilling. This was one of the minor wounds, the worst were In the thigh. The man- ultimately made a good recovery, and so did the woman who was Injured earlier. To allay tho excitement and to calm the people, I told then! I' would kill the lion next day'. 'The, natives were not surprised that this came true, for they are very superstitious, and with them "medicine man" and wizard are synonymous terms. 'The native lieutenant lieu-tenant reminded me of this fact. "You told us," he 6ald,. "tjiat you would kill tho lion next day, but then you are a 'medicine man.' ". , i -, 1 A Goat'fap Bait I advised the men to retire to their huts, and tosec that their doors were firmly secured. As regards my own hut, this was easier said than done, as the door was only; a reed screen leaning against tho aperture, which It failed to close. Cut natives usually ' . ;! . conceded to them, as their A&y of rest. First of all we made a.tlrin stockade of stout perpendicular polos; to use these w e lashed tree stems' laid; horizontally one on top of the other; finally w ' planted an onter row of poles, perpendicular like the first row-firmly row-firmly and deeply into the ground This gaye' us the sides of tho cage Tho top.we closed in with horizontally laid tree trunks, on to which we piled large heavy , stones, till wo felt satisfied sat-isfied that the, fiercest lion could not possibly break'.ou of this cage. Tho trap ' door 'consisted of seven heavy blocks of Svobd fastened together . horizontally hor-izontally on top. of each other, and held xr position by short perpendicular pieces on both Bides. So far- all went smoothly. But never having constructed construct-ed a wild beast trap before, I was seriously ser-iously puzzled how to make tb trap door act. ' .' ' Trying a Trap ' There Ls something In this Robinson Crusoe life which stimulates the most unlnventlve Intellect. It was an unpleasant un-pleasant predicament that, unless I found some means, the cage would very shortly be ready, and I placed In the ridiculous position of not knowing how to make tho trap work. Inspiration. Inspira-tion. came at last. . I had asked the native na-tive officers,. the Soudanese soldiers, the Swahlll porters, my Arab servant, and the Wanyroro onlookers, to find out. If anyone could help me. They calmly assured me that they had never nev-er built a trap; In vain I told them nor had I. But I fait on the following plan. I constructed a sort of picture frame, ) tho trap-door resting in the forked ends of the two perpendicular pieces. Attaching a rope to the middle of the lower horizontal stick, even a slight tug .withdrew the supporting framework, and caused the heavy rjr'l.'uai l," 'STONS have occasion-I occasion-I j T : ally been met with I i ; and shot ot Mom- 1 I il ' ba?3' and 1 Sh0t a j i 2ss& B lioness at Fajoi. n l$tZE&ESZJZS32f thousand miles from I H$iH R ,b? roaEt' miwtfcn M'KTKt'Acg these two extreme L-&g&5fl Points there are, as ! .' might be expected. y certain localities where the uporls-i uporls-i nan anxious to bag a lion has a better bet-ter chance of finding one. As a gen- ' pfal principle, Hons follow the big j game, and wherever zebras, antelopes. ' and gazelles abound, lions are not far I off ; ; i Somo travelers never cross the game ,' itocked Athl plains! without seeing lions, the late Mr. Dick once saw four-j. four-j. teen of them, and It is reported that j, n score of lions have been scon to- tether at ono and the same time. I 1 hr.vo crossed the Athl plains six times ' ; without seeing a live lion; though j on co I picked up the fine skull of an N ' cged lion at the Stony Athl, hyaenas 5 i Laving Just devoured the king of T i i beasts. On another occasion, whcn ) the grass was about three feet high, j i was stalking a waterbuck near the ftthl river, when my gun bearers de-: de-: rlared they had seeji a Hon switching his tail and disappearing Into the ad-t ad-t , Joining copse, and they persuaded me to keep from the gloomy thorn copse ; ! tt a respectful distance. ' , On my fourth Journey, I was warned by the missionaries at Klbwezl not to ' ' camp nt Ngomcnl, because a man-cat 1 ing lion was haunting the nclghbor- 1 hood. I had at the time amongst my porters a man wbo camped at Ngo-menl Ngo-menl a few weeks before with another caravan. According to his story,, he must havo bad a wonderful esc&po. for the Hon pounced oa him and carried car-ried off his llanket and the tiny tent under which be lay sheltered. Tho porter, however, escaped unhurt. From Klnanl to Ngomenl Is twelve miles, but my caravan were in such a dread of spending the night at Ngo-nu-nl, that they begged me to push on to the next camp on the Tsavo river, ' nine miles farther. "We therefore marched tho 21 miles, crossed the Tcavo river and camped. ' Simba'Attacks by Night It w as & hot night, and most of tho porters slept In the open air, by their camp fires: No one dreamt there could be any danger; we all thought that the man-eating lion had been left nine miles behind us at Ngomenl. I felt unaccountably restless, and kept tossing toss-ing on my bed. I could not sleep. I KAuntercd out of my tent, saw that the night watchman was awake, looked at the sleeping figures around the glowing camp fires, and then etrolled into the silent darkness. beyond be-yond the cajnp. It was providential 'bat I was not seized by the mar., cater, for bo was closo at tho very moment. He bad followed us from N'L'omenl. and bad swnm across tho Tsnvo river. My dog had followed me. He growled angrily at some bush, o near that I conld see some of the leaves stirring. Thus was my fourth Journey without over meeting with a lion, and I was at the moment bo completely com-pletely unconscious of any danger, that I said to my dog: "You silly! to Krowl when the wind stirs a few leaves " Since this night I never like , f venture outside tho circle of camp fires on a dark nlsht, however safe others may consider the surrounding uninhabited country. Ix-isurely returning to my tent, I lay down on my campbed, when I I'eard a horrid growling found ilke "wooff" a few yards from my tent 'loor. The next moment there were i bricks and cries. In & second every map was awake, and shouting "slmba! rimba!" (lion, lion). Dashing out with a loaded revolver, I found that Ihe man oater bad carried off one of ; my porters. ( to take the goat twice offered him as a bait on two successive nights, v The Soudanese lieutenant, Said Jab-ara, Jab-ara, was eating his evening meal the next night at the door of his . hut, w hen the man eater suddenly entered his enclosure and bounded Into tho adjoining hut With great presence of mind, the lieutenant at once flung burning brands in front of this h-t and thus promptly made a prisoner of. the man eater. . : .' The Rifle Does the Work : ,'. It seemed a long while, though probably prob-ably only a minute or two, before I succeeded In distinguishing the outline of the Hon. I fired, but as I could not see very clearly the foresight ; of my rlfle. I probably missed- The lion gave an ominous growl which was heard nnd received with mad phouts by tho crowd surging around "ius-.at" aTaafo distance. '.The. brute bounded' Jo the other end of the hut, but' as . It left the bind part exposed, I wps- able thjs time to. take a better aim and to send the bullet crashing through Its .body. As It turned to escape by the door. 1 had time to reload I was using a Martlul-Henrl rifle and-to "glve'( It a good shoulder-shot It staggered, and fell dead in the outer shed. . The man-cater turned .out) tp be a lioness. It was gaunt and grim, old and emaciated. It bad but five other wounds, In spito of the subsequent fr.silade, besides the two Inflicted by me; one of these five shots had carried car-ried off the little toe of the right forefoot, fore-foot, tho others wore principally flesh wounds. It required seven men to carry car-ry the lioness to where I camped. There was a feeling of Joy and relief that the man-eater was slain. I. had to remain close to the body to prevent pre-vent Its belrg torn to pieces by the frenzied mob. Even then one of tho Wanyamwezl porters managed to dodga me and to deliver '.with a club a terrLfic blow at the dead lioness, smashing her skull.' Tile women Joircd in the uproar with tholr shrill trcmulo scream of "he-he-ho- he-he-he" ad Snflultum, only stopping when quite out of breath. This was meant as a sort of triumphal chant. - On my sixth ' journey we hnd pitched our tents at "Campiya-Slmba" 1. e., " the camp of Hons" we 6aw four animals in the distance a mile or two off No one could make out what they were. I came to the conclusion they mutt be wart ' hogs, because the body seemed unusually long and legs comparatively . short As far as the hills , and trec-Ws trec-Ws ground was covered with short grass, only here ' and thero a patch of grass three feet high would dot the undulating surface. Accompanied Accom-panied by my gun bearer, I tried to get as near as I could before attempting attempt-ing a shot. The place was too open to make stalking possible or practlca ble. Three of the animals trotted off to the loft, one went off to the right in the direction of our camp. Thia one I followed. I felt more than ever convinced con-vinced It was a wild boar, &a It constantly con-stantly placed Its head near the ground and only occasionally raised Jt to look at us as wc followed.lt Our persistent pursuit seeinc.d to annoy an-noy it. and It went to hide Jn a patch of high grass. A Too Hasty Shot . With my rifle ready,' I cautiously cautious-ly approached the patch,; but ' as I could not make out where tho animal might be, I said to my pun bearer: "I have lost it." The patch of grass extended perhaps for a. quarter of a mile. Suddenly a long tall switched upward, and instantly a huge Hon raised himself up and gave a fierce deep growl Up went my rifle and I fired. The Hon was fully' two hundred hun-dred yards off; tho bullet .almost grazed its head. The act:waa automatic; auto-matic; the shock of unexpectedly facing fac-ing a Hon must have , paralyzed vol! tlon, or I would most certainly not have risked at that distance, ray f only -- - - - ' . I 7 ' ' i shot, on which the life of the two of J us might have depended. This brings to ray mind a passage; 1 in a medical lecture I onto attended. . The lecturer, to .Impress the medical ' students with the proximity of certain i nerve centers In the brain, used "Eve and the apple" as an Illustration. "This ia the center for sight," he said i 'Eve saw the apple" "and this is tho center for movement of the arms Eve stretched out her hand for it." In my cae the sight, of the lion ! prompted the defensive motion of my arms. Fortunately for me. tho lion turned and bounded off. I reloaded : my rifle and hurried after it, eager to shoot It and to secure 6uch a splendid brute.', But though it Beemed to bo merely trotting, and my gun hearer and I were running, as if it were a racing match, the Hon got steadily farther away and finally disappeared . beyond the undulating ridges. When we reached camp, I was greeted by my companion with the remark that a Hon had been In sight of the camp and had disappeared In the scrub near us; that be had gone to look for It, bu had seen no trace of it. The whole caravan were greatly excited ex-cited saying the Hon was crouching In the long grass, and would wait till dusk, and then pay us an unpleasant visit Having rested myself, I went once more alter the lion; but I fol- ! lowed a different plan to what my companion had tried. As the Hon bad crossed the caravan road, I went to track him instead of looking for him ' at haphazard. I found the footprints, and several of my men now eystemat- i ic?.lly tracked them for me. The trail led downwards to a grassy dell. Just then a couple of partridges flew up j and settled in a patch of grass on the higher ground. I exchanged my rifle I for a gun, and thought I might as well . bag a partridge for supper, whilst my men went tracking towards the dell. The boy who had carried the gun accompanied ac-companied me, though tho gun wa now in my own hands. ' ' . At Close Range. ' As I skirted the edge of the grass ,. . ' patch. I noticed a peculiar; opening at ono spot, as if a longlsh animal .bad entered there, I said to , my boy: 'I . am sure' the Hon has "passed here." . but I never dreamt the lion my men' wore tracking down hill could at that moment be 60 near to me near the summit of tho bill. I bad passed the spot half a dozen yards when curiosity curi-osity prompted mo to go back and to havo another look at it Balancing myself on my left foot, with icy fowling fowl-ing pleco held unconcernedly in my bands, I was leisurely turning the grass this way and that with my rlghr foot, when the samo huge lion. Just as It did on the former occaalon. cr cept that it was now only a few yard from me, sprang up, laahed Its tall furiously, and growlod or rathoi snarled at me. My boy was paralyzed with fear. I could sea how both bit hands went up and his fingers curled Inwards, and then he gav a yell of terror. As on the previous occasion, the sudden shock deprived me of th sensation of fear, but automatically my hands endeavored to shoot back the safety bolt of my gua sad to got it ready for defense. Before I could act the Hob had ample am-ple time to have killed both of us; but once more it turned and fled. As tho black tip of the tail disappeared over tho next undulation. I got at . i last my gun In position and sent some email No. 6 shots at ' it. though I might as well have tickled the tip of the tall with a feather brush, as regards any harm I could hav done with such tiny shot at that distance. But I wos mad with myself at baviug loat such a splendid chance; only ! gradually better thoughts enteied my head, and 1 felt thankful that twice this day Providence had javed me, in-spite in-spite of my folly, from painful mull- 1 ' lation and probabl death tCopytlsht, 1M, by.BcnJ. B. Hnr,j:oti.) ' I .- " "I WAS ABLE THIS TIME TO TAKE A BETTER AIM AND TO SEND THE BULLET CRASHING THROUGH ITS BODY." I was returning to camp, and within sight of It, when I observed a Jackal slinking round tho base of a hillock Intending to get a shot at him, I hurried hur-ried up the hillock. As I reached the top, I heard shouts of "Slmba! slmba!" (lion, Hon). I naturaUy turned round to see w ho wero Hhouting, and tben I hcr.rd some of my men call out that the; lions were In front of me. In fact, nt tho critical moment, when I would havj 6een them. I had turned round. A lion and a Hones6, peacefully reposing' re-posing' In the grass, had been disturbed dis-turbed by my approach, and were now trotting off towards somo high grass a few hundred yards avay. I had barely time to fire three shots from the magazine rifle at their receding figures. The first two shots fell short, but my third shot, put at 300 yards, threx up' the dust close to the left hind leg of the Hon. The thota did not apparently disturb thc-Ir equanimity. Aftir my third shot they stopped for a second to look at us. Before I could tty u fourth shot, the pair had dls-anciired dls-anciired Jn the long grass, where it wJuld have been foolhardy to follow thrm. ', The donkey boy told me, that wton he was bringing my rldlng-don-'ke.y. to meet me, the donkey suddenly broke loose and galloped back to the camp, He had to return to fetch it, . .V inches frorj mine. I realized how the merciful Gc,d had twice that day preserved pre-served me from death. f Soon afterwards, after-wards, news was brought mo that the man-oater hid Just attempted to carry off a woman at the nearest Wanyoro village, but was driven off. prosum ably with firebrands, by men wbo bad happened to sit near her. This alarming alarm-ing news was shortly followed by my cow stampeding. She was tied to a peg, close to the Soudanese watch fire Tearing herself loose, she bolted like mad. 'Sbenever stopped until she reached a distant village, whence fcbe was returned, to mo next day. Tho Soudanese on guard declared that ho saw the lion crouching and trying to spring upon the cow, when fortunately, fortun-ately, she Just' tore herself loose In time nnd escaped. ' It was too dark for him to aim,' or be would have fired his rlfla. ' !',"' The Man-Eaiter'Appears Again The general excitement was increasing, increas-ing, when suddenly, terrific'' screams of pain arose from the' Soudanese village, vil-lage, followed ' by soldiers, firing off their rifles In every direction, under the belief that tbey had seen tho man-eater man-eater here, there and everywhere. The brute certainly scmed b(qultous I felt uncomfortablo at the thought that take the precaution of fixing two vertical vert-ical poles inside the but, so that the reed screen slides between them, and is retained in position; the door is then firmly closed by some faggots placed transversely. Having dispersed the crowd, I determined to put a bait for the man-eater, and to sit up and watch for him. We tied a young goat to a tree a few feet from my door. The night was very dark, and 1 was obliged to kindle a tire to enable mo to see the foresight fore-sight of my rifle. Then the silent and dreary watch began. As the hours crept on. the stillness and the darkness dark-ness told on me. I had had a fatiguing fatigu-ing day. In "the early morning i had marched from Waklbara to Fajoa, afterwards af-terwards I had attended to patients, and then came tbo lively doings of the evening. By and by I caught myself nodding. If the man-cater had chosen to paas my hut once more, it could have had me, notwithstanding the loaded rifle on my knees At 3:30 a. m I gavo up the struggle to ke0p awake, and resolving to set a trap for the lion, i went to bed. At 8 a. m. next morning i began to build the Hon trap. Kvcrybody helped willingly, although it w8s Pr. day. the Sunday equivalent t0 the Soudanese w ho are Mobammodans and who have consequently had this day i . trap-doca" to fall down into the required re-quired position and thereby to shut the cage most effectively. Tho ropo went to.tlve farthest end of the cage, and there,' passing over a horlzonl.il pole and returning in the direction of the door, hud its end securely tied to a goat placed as a bait Inside the trap. The Lieutenants's Bravery ' The goat - had"; previously had Its W-gs tied, no as to render It quite helpless. help-less. ' Of courw the principle I went upou was that the Hon would not stop ; to devour . its- prey but would seize it. sod. try. to carry It off, and -therefore would pull on the rope to which the goat was tied, and thus close th,c trap-door. As the lion had refubod 1 to accept the goat we bud placed or It us : bait out in the open air on the previous night, we built a native luil over the trap, and tho lion trap' whs completed. Just before dark vn .baited.: the trap and awaited the .rcniill. i Everybody in the village jw'as .warned to be inside his hut be-forudufk be-forudufk ami tosee that his door was Bcpurt;)!', tnsjened. Though a tiger iniin;fater; having once tasted hu-'nVanJ hu-'nVanJ flesh; I said ever after to prefer pre-fer it to all otbeB flerh, I do not know jf the lion f man-eater resembles It in this predilection ; but it would seem It docs, for -this particular Hon refused ly.O-i, ; ; - - :- i M - '' ' . . .' ( The Victim Rescued Everyman seized a firebrand and we rubbed ia pursuit , It surprises mo yet, that we rescued the man. About two hundred yards from tho camp wo found him lying on tho ground ncv verely lacerated; the Hon bad dropped blrn and fled. 1 carefully examined tHo spot next morning. A strong, but withered branch stretched out horizontally hori-zontally k sharp pointed lion's short hairs. My belief is, that tho Hon. bounding away with bis prey, accl- ' dentally struck his side against this nbiirp branch. ' Ho may have taken it ; for a spear thrust from one of us pur-Hulpg pur-Hulpg him with shouts and blazing brands. . The wounded man was carried to my tent He had dreadful wounds. In the upper part of the tbigb, where the lion's Jaws bad seized him.' As I hnd every surgical requisite at hand, he was soon bandaged up, and 'ha re-; re-; . nalned that night under my tent. 'No olio ventured to go to 6leep. as we 1 filily expected tbc baffled man-eater vould make auotber attempt before dawn. The injured mcji was In great p.Vlp. and hla moans were dlatroalu,;. i He told us a remarkable story that, though. the Hen b?d seized him aud . V'as carrying him off, he was stllj . i ; |