-Simba Mtu-
African mythology tells of a man-beast akin to a werewolf called 'Simba Mtu' - the lion-man. By day he is an ordinary man but by night he transforms into a man-eating lion and goes on the prowl for humans. This legend is popularised by witch-doctors who for the right price can offer protection from this scourge to villagers. (1)
The man-eater is often believed to be a lion which has been possessed by the spirit of a dead person who uses the animal to settle old scores. C. P. Ionides (5) tells of a case where a woman and her lover were attacked (in the act of copulating) and the lover killed while her husband was away for the night. Naturally the villagers suspected that the husband had used witchcraft to plan this convenient attack. From the same source comes the story of a village which had been attacked several times. When the game ranger was tracking the lion responsible superstition drove the villagers to conceal the lion's spoor to prevent him being caught although they were the ones in danger. The man-eater was thought to be immune to bullets and to have satanic intelligence. The person who informed on its whereabouts would be the next victim.
One lion who was extremely intelligent and persistent had killed 90 people over an area of over two thousand square miles over a period of many months. Eventually the villagers decided that the 'devil lion' was the slave of a wizard and decided to placate this man. Two weeks after a fee was paid a young hunter shot a lion near his village and the killings stopped.
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