290 Wild Beasts 



nights, bore little likeness to states of tension that some- 

 times possessed him when the storms of the rainy season 

 set in. If an African lion is to be seen in his glory, he 

 must be looked at by the lightning's glare. It is amid 

 tempest and gloom that the full proportions of his nature 

 come forth. So with this lion of another world. Many a 

 time in the course of those nightly interviews which have 

 been referred to, he roused himself from an intense con- 

 templation of his companion, disturbed by thunder and the 

 tumult without. Then while the wind blew unequally, 

 roared through swaying branches, or mourned around the 

 walls that shut him in, he quickened under the influence of 

 over-tones in nature which human beings cannot hear. 

 Storm and darkness wrought upon him as they will not 

 do upon man. Beyond what was visible or audible, there 

 was something that came from within himself ; something 

 that wove "the waste fantasies" of his dreams together, 

 and gave character and purpose to ideation. He showed 

 it in profoundly suggestive pantomime. But what "air- 

 drawn " shapes were followed with those long, swift, soft 

 yet heavy steps, on what his eyes were fixed, what feelings 

 and fancies engrossed and transfigured him, gave that 

 fierce energy, and led him in their train, are unknowable. 

 They had no voice, but only with mute motions pointed 

 backward to a past in which humanity shared no part, and 

 which it cannot explore. 



Those who have reared beasts of prey, must, it is prob- 

 able, read works that describe the expression of their emo- 

 tions with a certain dissatisfaction. Not for the reason 

 that their authors lacked power, the art of observation, or 



