Every time you visit some place new, particularly a place like Africa, you learn a lot about things you might not expect. On my trip last month I was mighty lucky to get a lion. The day after getting him we began our effort to get a croc and the lion's body became the first meat we used as bait. Before tying the body to a post the trackers drove in the water just off the bank, I noticed one of the trackers carving off the fat from the lion's belly.



Two of the trackers were Masai and couldn't speak English, so I asked the one shown above what it was he was doing? "Lion medicine," I was told. He then told me that they use it for a variety of ailments as he listed off a bunch of things that he said it would cure. He said they also put dabs of it out from their homes and that it would keep various predators from coming by. I thought about the scent of lion and surely didn't doubt that one.

The next day when we were out fishing I saw the finished product. It seems they boil the fat down to its essence and keep the remaining condensed version of what's left. They put it in leftover water bottles and then came down to the river to clean them up:


They got almost 4 bottles of the finished product. Whenever the stuff is needed, they take the bottle and leave it in the sun where it becomes like syrup. It's then ready for all of your future medicinal and annoying creature issues. Knowing people in the US will buy most anything, do you think we can find a market for this stuff here at home?

Interesting,

Thanks for sharing.

Hmmm, I'm trying to imagine what I would smell like slathered in that stuff! I know it can't be an aphrodisiac because the Missus wouldn't get close to me if I were doused in the linament!

Interesting, thanks.
Probably smells like Bovril.

That is why all valueble trophies should be locked up in the skinning shed.

i have heard of leopard skins and rhino horn disappearing and the shangomas use all sorts of animal muti's they love a dew claw.

you will also see the locals drinking sea water

Will it ward off financial failure ??

they ate mine

I've never shot an African lion,or eaten any of the meat from one, but I have eaten American lion, and it is delicious. If the meat from an African lion is the same I'd love some! However, I'd like all the meat I eat to be a little less than three days lying in the sun,with flies crawlling on it, if you please! Africans will eat meat, or fish that would kill an American!

Strangely enough, here in Zim one of the most sought after animal body parts is wildebeeste tail. Apparently wilde tail has very powerful properties and often I have heard of one mysteriously disappearing from the skinning shed. Yes, one certainly needs to keep an eye on one's trophies.

I have eaten African lion and it wasn't bad at all. All to do with the way it's cooked, I reckon.

Seems to me the floating bones in all my cats were powerful juju. I don't think the locals wanted it for anything else. As for eating it lion and leopard are excellent. Like most any other meat you need good cuts that have had a little time to age.

Mark