That's awesome.

very cool!

I wish Joseph Campbell were still around to read this -- it's a myth come to life. Thanks, matildaben.

Aslan is so hot
screw the lion king

Aw, that's a cool story.

Wow. Fascinating, but so incredibly strange.

"A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they (the lions) didn't eat her," Williams said. "Otherwise they probably would have done."

But, why, then, would they just leave when her rescuers arrived? If they were willing chase off seven men to save the "lion cub", why would they abandon it (her) to the next X-number of men who came around? Bizarre.

it could be that they were a family of lions, and maybe a mom had lost her cub to those same men? or men like them? or men who smelled like them?

/wildly speculating and anthropomorphizing

I don't believe it for a second. The clincher is that lions are the national symbol. The authorities made up the story for some reason.

This only affirms my life's philosophy:

People suck. Give me animals over people any damn day.

Yay. Mammals are awesome.

She's a witch!

kmellis might be right. But why make up a story that highlights that kidnapping is "part of the marriage custom"? Yick.

News of the June 9 rescue was slow to filter out from Kefa Zone in southwestern Ethiopia.

That screams Chinese whispers to me. It'd be cool if it was true though - the idea of big cats going around helping people like The Littlest Hobo is irresistable.

heh. Dabitch is right; either they have the world's silliest marketing department, or activists (the lions are endangered) spread the story, based on some particle of truth, or Ethiopian lions have learned how to distinguish between "good human" and "bad human".

Or... Okay, the lions didn't attack the girl, but neither did they actually attack the seven men holding her. The place was likely to contain a lot of food to feed seven strapping guys working up big appetites by beating up a little girl. So the lions come around for the food, the guys run, the lions eat the food but leave the girl alone because she's a) obviously not a threat, and b) not their favorite dish as long as there's hot dogs and banana pudding around. Rescue team approaches, lions are sated and don't feel like dealing with them, so leave.

the iconic gods of ethiopia say no to kidnapping

like when that puppy shot that guy, because puppies don't like being shot or gun control

taz, you are way too logical to ever get a job as a journalist at CNN.com. ;)