( 103 ) 

 CHAPTER XIX. 

 THE 



* What if the lion in his rage I meet ! 



Oft in the dust I view his printed feet : 



By hunger rous'd, he scours the groaning plain, 



Gaunt wolves and sullen tigers in his train. 



Before them death with shrieks directs their way, 



Fills the wild yell, and leads them to their prey." COLLINS. 



HAVING described the beautiful form and ferocious disposition 

 of the tiger, we shall now proceed to a description of the Lion, 

 which is the noblest and most courageous of all the feline race. 



THE LION 



May justly be styled the lord of the forest : there, indeed, he 

 ranges uncontrolled ; for his roar is so tremendous, that when 

 reverberated by the woods or mountains, it resembles thunder, 

 and all the animal creation flies before it. This roar is the lion's 

 natural note ; for when enraged he has a different growl, which 

 is short, broken, and reiterated. He then lashes his sides with 

 his tail, erects his mane till it stands up like bristles, and his eyes 

 seem to emit sparks of fire. 



The form of the lion is a perfect model of strength combined 

 with agility, and at the same time strikingly bold and majestic. 

 His large and shaggy mane encircling his awful front, his ample 

 eye-brows, and fiery eyes, which, upon the least irritation, glow 

 with a fierce and striking lustre, with the formidable appearance 

 of his teeth, altogether form a picture of terrific grandeur, un- 

 paralleled in any other species of the animal creation. 



The face of the lion is very broad, and quite surrounded with 

 the mane, which gives it a singularly majestic appearance ; for 

 the top of the head, the temples, the cheeks, the under jaw, the 

 neck, the breast, the shoulders, the belly, and the hinder part of 

 the legs, are all furnished with long hair, but that on the rest of 

 the body is very short : his tongue is exceeding rough and prickly. 

 and by licking will easily take off the skin of a man's hand ; a 

 circumstance which ought carefully to be guarded against by 

 those who keep lions, or amuse themselves with them, although 

 ever so well tamed ; for if this animal once either see or taste 

 blood, his fury is beyond all restraint, and he immediately de- 

 stroys his victim. Several instances of this kind have been known. 



One gentleman in particular kept a lion, which was almost as 

 tractable as a dog, and used to caress his master in the same 

 manner as that animal. The gentleman often used to permit 



