LION HUNTING

Evening Star, Issue 19745, 21 December 1927, Page 11

LION HUNTING

OLD AND mi PAIR THAT HELD UP A RAILWAY It is announced that the Game Department of Kenya Colony has appointed a white lion hunter, who will have the privilege of hunting lions and leopards for four months in the southern reserve, which has hitherto been held sacred as a sanctuary tor big game; he will hunt by daylight and with dogs, and it is hoped that his hunting will instil in the lions something of respect and fear for man. For it appears that the lions, having found the reserve a convenient breed-, ing ground, have of late increased the field of their activities, and have begun to attack systematically the herds and herdsmen of the Masai tribe, it would seem, indeed, a task for a Theseus for one man and a pack of terriers to go merrily to pacify a whole lion-infested countryside-; “All the same. I wish I had his job,” Lieu-tenant-colonel John H. Patterson said in an interview with the ‘ Observer.’ Lieutenant-colonel Patterson is a famous hunter of lions. It will be remembered that he wrote the history of some of his more lurid adventures in his book, ‘The Man-eaters of Tsavo.’ “ Lions are sensible beasts,” he said. “They know when they are well off.” He thought, indeed, that a great many animals seemed almost to know the exact position of the boundaries of the southern reserve. It is bounded, oddly enough, by the railway line, and on one side of the line—the right side — it is possible to watch them browsing contentedly a few yards away; on the other side they are on the qni vive, and fly at the least alarm. Thus, in the peace of the sanctuary the lions have flourished mightily; and to make their lives even more pleasant the Masai are hunting them Jess vigorously than of old. “It was a grand sight —an old-time Masai hunt!” Colonel Patterson said —and to hear him tell of it is exciting enough. It is a hunt conducted almost with the pomp and circumstance of a. Spanish bull fight. There is a baud of warriors slowly circling round the lion, waving their spears; and when at last they liave surrounded it one of the bravest go.s into tho midst of the ring and takes the lion’s charge on his shield while he thrusts with his spear. Often the lion charges repeatedly and receives many spear thrusts, so that many warriors attain glory. “In tho old days, if a lion attacked the Masai cattle,” the colonel said, “I think the lierdsraen would have shown that they knew how to use their spears.” It seemed, however, as he thought, that tho trouble was not so much that the Masai have become less brave and less skilful as that the lions have found such confidence and prosperity in the reserve. It may thus bo found necessary to send a lion hunter into the reserve as a corrective every few years. “And 1 hope that this time, at any rate, the authorities have had the forethought to send a kinema man with the hunter. He would get such a film as would make a fortune.

“ For the point about hunting with dogs is that the lion’s attention is so distracted that the cinema man could get close up for his shots without any danger. The lion is not going to bother about him. Hunting with dogs is considered unsportsmanlike. Compared with real lion hunting, it is a quiet and tamo pastime. When the lion is mauling the terriers the hunter can shoot at leisure. It is a very different thing when you have to wait for a lion’s charge. You have only time for one shot; the lion has covered sixty or seventy yards in a second or two. It is a difficult target. You miss—and very likely that will -be the end of somebody. It may be the hunter himself; it, may be one of his servants—though most of them, to be sure, are halfway up the nearest tree before tho lion arrives.”

Colonel Patterson lias many stories to tell about lions; he seems to regard them almost as personalities to be studied as much as beasts to be bunted, aud he has had chance enough to study them. It was he who killed the famous pair of man-eating lions who held yp for nine months the building of the Uganda Railway and killed and ate 135 of his workmen. Ho has learned something about the lion’s character—its odd dignity, its histrionic powers: “For he’s generally shamming when he’s dead!” as Kipling wrote. He told of one lion, for instance, which, having fallen, was left lying while another lion was tracked and killed; its body was found again a long time afterwards with some difficulty. The native servants surrounded and examined it; it seemed dead as any lion could be, but it got up and'charged. It chased one of the natives a hundred yards, and he had. barely time to scramble up a tree. )t was only a quick shot from Colonel Patterson that put an end to the play. Here, again, the hunter with dogs has an advantage—he can investigate a shamming lion by proxy. Lions seem almost to have a selfconscious dignity. “Sometimes,” Colonel Patterson said, “ I have been following a lion which has marched away with awful_ dignity—sometimes stopping and looking back as though to say: ‘ Come any farther and there’ll be trouble.’ And it will go on with this ceremony till it gets over a rise and thinks it is out of sight. Then it casts its dignity away; it is off like the wind!” Not otherwise—in Homeric simile—have wicked boys braved a policeman’s steady eye, till they wore round the corner; then—