In The Dark, Or At All Hours When Breeding,
The Lion Is An Ugly Enough Customer; But If A Man
Will stay at home by night,
and does not go out of his way to attack him, he runs less
Risk in Africa
of being devoured by a lion than he does in our cities of being run over
by an omnibus - so says Mr. Livingstone.
When the lion grows old he leads a miserable life. Unable to master
the larger game, he prowls about the villages in the hope of picking up
a stray goat. A woman of child venturing out at night does not then
come amiss. When the natives hear of one prowling about the villages,
they say, "His teeth are worn; he will soon kill men,"
and thereupon turn out to kill him. This is the only foundation
for the common belief that when the lion has once tasted human flesh
he will eat nothing else. A "man-eater" is always an old lion,
who takes to cannibalism to avoid starvation. When he lives
far from human habitations, and so can not get goats or children,
an old lion is often reduced to such straits as to be obliged
to live upon mice, and such small deer.
Mr. Livingstone's strictly missionary life among the Bakwains
lasted eight or nine years. The family arose early,
and, after prayers and breakfast, went to the school-room,
where men, women, and children were assembled. School was over at eleven,
when the husband set about his work as gardener, smith, or carpenter,
while his wife busied herself with domestic matters -
baking bread, a hollow in a deserted ant-hill serving for an oven;
churning butter in an earthen jar; running candles; making soap from ashes
containing so little alkaline matter that the ley had to be kept boiling
for a month or six weeks before it was strong enough for use.
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