[tom hyle]

The version of the ritual Conogre describes is close to how it is usually told in N America; I do not know what the original source of this story is, or if it is/was ever done or not, or under what circumstances. I saw the one I saw; I watched it on TV. He threw the spear; it killed the lion (interestingly, I recently heard a San interviewed and asked "how do you kill a lion with only a spear?" He laughed, and said something that was translated as "you have to throw the spear just right."). He also was not alone; a semicircle of warriors, whose ends closed in together during the process until it became almost a circle, drove the lion to him.