lion anecdote, from the days of the Assyrian Kings till the last year
of the nineteenth century, were collated and brought together, it would
not equal in tragedy or atrocity, in savageness or in sheer insolent
contempt for man, armed or unarmed, white or black, the story of these
two beasts.

"To what a distance the whole story carries us back, and how impossible
it becomes to account for the survival of primitive man against this
kind of foe! For fire--which has hitherto been regarded as his main
safeguard against the carnivora--these cared nothing. It is curious
that the Tsavo lions were not killed by poison, for strychnine is
easily used, and with effect. (I may mention that poison was tried, but
without effect. The poisoned carcases of transport animals which had
died from the bite of the tsetse fly were placed in likely spots, but
the wily man-eaters would not touch them, and much preferred live men
to dead donkeys.) Poison may have been used early in the history of
man, for its powers are employed with strange skill by the men in the
tropical forest, both in American and West Central Africa. But there is
no evidence that the old inhabitants of Europe, or of Assyria or Asia
Minor, ever killed lions or wolves by this means. They looked to the
King or chief, or some champion, to kill these monsters for them. It
was not the sport but the duty of. Kings, and was in itself a title to
be a ruler of men. Theseus, who cleared the roads of beasts and
robbers; Hercules, the lion killer; St. George, the dragon-slayer, and
all the rest of their class owed to this their everlasting fame. From
the story of the Tsavo River we can appreciate their services to man
even at this distance of time. When the jungle twinkled with hundreds
of lamps, as the shout went on from camp to camp that the first lion
was dead, as the hurrying crowds fell prostrate in the midnight forest,
laying their heads on his feet, and the Africans danced savage and
ceremonial dances of thanksgiving, Mr. Patterson must have realised in
no common way what it was to have been a hero and deliverer in the days
when man was not yet undisputed lord of the creation, and might pass at
any moment under the savage dominion of the beasts."

Well had the two man-eaters earned all this fame; they had devoured
between them no less than twenty-eight Indian coolies, in addition to
scores of unfortunate African natives of whom no official record was
kept.

CHAPTER X