...And the Lion Will Lay Down with the Lamb...

Strange story from Ethiopia. A twelve year old girl was kidnapped and beaten by men because she refused to marry one of them and the assailants were driven off by lions who heard the girl crying.

The girl, missing for a week, had been taken by seven men who wanted to force her to marry one of them, said Sgt. Wondimu Wedajo, speaking by telephone from the provincial capital of Bita Genet, about 350 miles southwest of Addis Ababa.

She was beaten repeatedly before she was found June 9 by police and relatives on the outskirts of Bita Genet, Wondimu said. She had been guarded by the lions for about half a day, he said.

"They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest," Wondimu said.

Maybe there is something about calling the lion the "King of Beasts".