The Lion 135 



visitors who might keep game at a distance and inter- 

 fere with his supper. No one who watches young wild 

 beasts, and more particularly those of the cat kind, can 

 fail to notice that they continually rehearse the chief 

 acts of their lives under the influence of imagination. A 

 lion's memory is good, and he can be taught much. His 

 judgment is excellent, and he seldom attempts what he is 

 unable to carry out. In cold blood, prudence is one of his 

 distinguishing characteristics, and he is also very sus- 

 picious and on the lookout for destructive devices and 

 inventions of the only enemy he has reason to fear ; that is 

 to say, man. Thus, although parts of Africa may be said 

 to be undermined with pitfalls, lions rarely fall into them 

 and when this happens they often claw steps in their walls 

 and get out. Not, however, out of the trenches dug inside 

 of the fence round an Arab cattle pen, for there their ene- 

 mies occupy its edge, and then it is seen that there are 

 certainly occasions when lions meet inevitable death in a 

 very dignified manner. 



