^^ Fauna : Mammals 



A remarkable feature in African folklore, by the bye, is the 

 relative scarcity of stories about the lion. The leopard and 

 hyasna figure in most of them ; so do the hare, elephant, 

 chimpanzee (where it exists), monkey and baboon. The 

 rarity of or the inconspicuous part played by the lion in 

 these stories is remarkable, since one would have thought it 

 would have made as great an impression on the primitive 



72. THE SERVAL CAT (WEST AFRICAN SPECIMEN FROM LIBERIAN BORDER) 



Negro mind as on that of the prehistoric and even historic 

 natives of Europe. Is it possible that the lion in Africa south 

 of the Sahara, like the tiger in India, may be a recent arrival.^ 

 This seems difficult to believe. 



The Serval cat is fairly common in Liberia ; elsewhere 

 in Africa it is more associated with an open country than 

 with dense forest. A scarcer but more interesting species 



701 



