Lions and tigers, one is the king of the steppe, the other is the king of the forest, and few animals in nature dare to provoke them.
King of the Steppes
Although humans often use tools to hunt wild animals, it is rare for lions or tigers to be scared to see people.
However, in a documentary, we see a group of lions sharing food in the wild, and as a result, several Maasai people came, and the lions directly discarded the food and fled into the wilderness.
This scene can make many people dumbfounded, is this still the mighty lion in our hearts? How many humans can scare them like this?
You don't have to say that the lion is really not afraid of heaven and earth, and is afraid of the Maasai people chasing with spears.
A lion chased by the Maasai
Next, let's understand why the lion, as the king of the steppe, is afraid of the Maasai people. What exactly is the Maasai?
The reason why the Maasai fought with the lions
The Maasai are a group of nomadic people living in East Africa, mainly on the border between Kenya and Tanzania, where about 1 million people are active.
Living with the Maasai, in addition to their cattle, there was a flock of ferocious lions.
In the eyes of the Maasai people, the cattle were in their hearts, the reward of God, so the cattle were regarded as life.
Lion: I'm not as good as an ox
Of course, in This part of East Africa, which lacks food and water, cattle are not only their food source, but even their rare "water".
In the process of herding outside, the Maasai who felt thirsty would directly cut a hole in the cow with a knife and then use a small grass tube to suck it.
However, lions often attack cattle, and the Maasai, who are already extremely wild, naturally cannot let the lions act arbitrarily.
Ever since lions began to look at the Maasai cattle, the beams between them were knotted.
But in the beginning, they hunted lions just to protect the cattle and compete for some food from the lions' mouths.
The Maasai drink cow's blood
The force value of the Maasai
The men of the Massei tribe are almost all hidden masters, do not look at their thin bodies, but in fact they contain great strength, and their most important weapon is the spear.
The men of the clan use the spear as if they have been engraved in DNA, and after long-term training, many people have the ability to wear Yang in a hundred steps.
This is a great weapon for them to hunt lions, because many wild animals are experts in close combat, and lions are no exception.
The struggle between the Maasai and the lion
Therefore, the spear of the Maasai people, for the lion, has a fatal danger, this long-range attack, it is easy for the lion to react and escape.
And the Maasai people like to hunt lions in groups, so sometimes the spears are like rain, rushing directly towards the lions, so that the lions can't find a place to escape.
In addition, some Maasai spears were even quenched with poison, which may have come from the sap of the poison wood.
Once a lion is hit by such a spear, it is easy to be poisoned, leading to heart failure and eventually death.
Maasai man with spear and shield
In fact, a large part of the reason why the Maasai people can do everything is that they have excellent eyesight.
Generally speaking, in modern society, under the invasion of various electronic devices, people can maintain a vision of 5.0, which is already thankful, but the vision of Maasai people can reach 6.0.
Once on the CCTV "Challenge the Impossible" program, Maasai people 800 meters away, can identify at a glance the style of Peking Opera costumes worn by a little boy.
It is precisely because of such strong eyesight that the Maasai will be more accurate when using spears against lions.
Such eyesight who does not envy
Lion hunting at the coming-of-age ceremony
In the past, when the Maasai faced the lion, they were almost unflustered, and they began to chase the lion with the spear in their hands.
In the eyes of the lion, once this group of Maasai people stare at themselves, it is like "crazy", so gradually formed, "can't afford to provoke me to hide" mentality.
That is to say, in order not to let himself and the Maasai lose both, or to lead to their own tragic death, the lion saw the Maasai and instinctively fled.
It fled, he chased
But the lion could not resist cursing the Maasai cattle, so he wanted to give the lion a "lesson in blood" and give the adult Maasai a chance to exercise.
Gradually, at the age of 15, the tradition of hunting lions to prove their abilities was formed.
The personal strength of the Maasai people is still slightly thin in front of lions, so they generally use the way of hunting, and most of the choices are female lions, or weaker lions.
This group of fledgling young men, with spears, went to the grassland to find the lions, and then surrounded them.
Is it okay to bully the little ones?
Finally completing the task of hunting and killing, it means that the rite of passage can be completed.
Of course, some strong men will choose to hunt lions alone, because this can not only win the lofty status in the clan, but also capture the hearts of many girls.
In the Maasai tradition, the number of lions hunted is also very exquisite, "9" represents bad luck, so a person can not kill more than 9 lions.
In the range of less than 9, the more lions are hunted, the higher their status within the clan.
Lion hunting
Lion's mouth grabs food
In addition to protecting cattle and maintaining traditions, the Maasai also liked to snatch food from the lion's mouth.
This is mainly because the animals that lions generally hunt are relatively large.
In addition to eating their own cattle and sheep, the maasai people also search for food in the wild.
So when they see the lions hunting successfully, they like to grab some food.
In a documentary, we can see three Maasai men with spears and bows and arrows, staring at the lions in the distance who are dividing their food.
Well-prepared Maasai people
One of the lions, sensing their arrival, hurried to escape, and the other companions, seeing its movements, put down the food in their mouths without saying a word, and hid again.
In front of the lions, the Maasai cut off the legs of the wildebeest with one knife and flew away.
You see, these lions have been frightened by the Maasai people PTSD, and maybe they are still thinking in their hearts: fortunately, they did not come to me.
It can be seen that if those who can tame the lion are gold, then the Maasai people can be regarded as kings.
The Maasai who are waiting for an opportunity to act
Abandonment of customs for the protection of animals
There are more than 400,000 males in the Maasai people, and if everyone really needed to hunt lions, these African lions would have been extinct long ago.
In modern society, in order to protect wild animals, the local government has banned hunting and popularized the importance of ecology to them.
The government said that if the cattle and sheep in the family were bitten and eaten by lions, they would make equivalent compensation after verification.
So many modern Maasai people have regarded lion hunting as a bad behavior, and have also begun to protect lions.
Protecting lions
For the rite of passage, under the persuasion of the animal protection agency, the chief has changed the lion hunting behavior to a sport, and has made some changes to the way and content of the training.
Of course, such a change is a long-term process, after all, in the hearts of many Maasai people, the hatred of lions has been deeply rooted, and the easiest to change are those who are young and have not yet been exposed to lion hunting.
Modern life in the Maasai
With the further development of modern civilization, the Maasai people also began to gradually integrate into it.
The Maasai people of the city
Especially with the development of tourism, the Maasai people, who have wandered on the steppes for countless generations, have also begun to accept new civilizations.
Especially after the government introduced laws on land ownership, many Maasai people owned their own land, but in their minds, the cow was still a sacred being and would not be used to cultivate the land.
Once maasai houses on the steppes were built with mud and fences were erected around several homes to prevent wild beasts from attacking.
However, such houses cannot withstand the wind and sun, and the cattle also need to live near the water source, so they often need to move to new homes and build new houses.
The home where the Maasai people used to live
But now with a fixed home, the Maasai are safer, and they can send their children of the right age to school, so that they can access more knowledge.
Nowadays, a large part of the Maasai people have begun to move to the cities, and gradually they have begun to understand the use of various daily necessities and have begun to trade in money.
Although their original civilization also deserves our respect, in terms of survival, integrating into modern life is a better choice.