The Hindoos would not suffer so much from tigers if they were a more warlike race, for, although they have no firearms, they might easily make spears, and a party of men with spears can kill the fiercest beast of prey. Thus the Kaffirs of South Africa if a lion should kill even an ox belonging to them, much more one of themselves, never rest until they have taken its life in return. The whole village arm themselves with their spears—or assegais,[18] as we call them—and follow up the track of the marauder till they have at last found him, however far he may have gone. They then form a circle round the lion, and holding one assegai in the right hand, and some spare ones, together with a shield large enough to cover the whole body, in the left, they begin to close in upon him, singing and shouting. The lion, when he sees so many men advancing against him, crouches down and, growling fiercely, makes ready to spring upon one of them, as soon as he comes within a certain distance. He has not long to wait. The men, continuing to advance, make the circle ever smaller, and as he turns from side to side, doubtful on which point in it first to charge, a single warrior—as arranged probably by previous agreement—rushes forward to the combat. Instantly, the lion’s attention, which has been distracted amidst the numbers of his enemies, is fixed upon this one, and, with concentrated fury, he comes leaping towards him. Did the man stand to receive the charge, he would be dashed to the ground by the mere weight of the lion’s body; but, skilful as brave, he sinks gracefully down, with his shield held over him, and stabs up with his assegai from underneath it. For one blow—which may or may not be fatal—the lion has time, but, almost as he makes it, twenty or thirty assegais meet in his body, as, with a tremendous yell, the rest rush down upon him, each striving to be first to shield the comrade, who has thus so splendidly performed his part. In the mêlée which ensues many of the men may be more or less badly mauled, whilst some may lose their lives, but when it is all over—and it does not last many minutes—the lion lies stretched on the ground, with hardly an inch of skin, in his whole body, not cut by the blade of an assegai. Thus, amongst the more warlike tribes of Africa, lions have no chance of becoming habitual man-eaters, as do so many tigers in India, but in those parts of the country where the natives are timid, just the same thing happens, though, even there, there is not often so long a lease of life for the offending animal.