Chap. 19.] LIONS. 267 



go without food for three days. They swallow their food whole, 

 without mastication, so far as they are able ; and when they 

 have taken more than the stomach can possibly receive, they 

 extract part of it by thrusting their claws into the throat ; the 

 same too, if, when full, they have occasion to take to flight. 

 That they are very long-lived is proved by the fact, that many 

 of them are found without teeth. Polybius, 2 the companion of 

 JEmilianus, tells us, that when they become aged they will at- 

 tack men, as they have no longer sufficient strength for the 

 pursuit of wild beasts. It is then that they lay siege to the 

 cities of Africa; and for this reason it was, that he, as well as 

 Scipio, had seen some of them hung upon a cross ; it being 

 supposed that others, through dread of a similar punishment, 

 might be deterred from committing the like outrages. 



CHAP. 19. THE PECUMAK CHARACTEE OF THE LION. 



The lion is the only one of all the wild beasts that shows 

 mercy to the suppliant ; after it has conquered, it will spare, 3 

 and when enraged, it will vent its fury rather upon men 

 than women, and never upon children, unless when greatly 

 pressed by hunger. It is the belief in Libya, that it fully un- 

 derstands the entreaties which are addressed to it. At all events, 

 I have heard it asserted as a fact, that a female slave, who was 

 returning from GaBtulia, was attacked by a number of lions in 

 the forests ; upon which she summoned sufficient courage to ad- 

 dress them, and said that she was a woman, a fugitive, help- 

 less creature, that she implored the compassion of the most 

 generous of animals, the one that has the command of all the 

 others, and that she was a prey unworthy of their high repute 

 and by these means effectually soothed their ferocity. There 



period without eating ; but the statement respecting its taking food on 

 alternate days, is without foundation. There does not appear to be any 

 ground for the account of the mode by which it relieves the stomach when 

 overcharged. B. 



2 We learn from Cicero, Ep. Fam. B. v. Ep. 12, that Polybius wrote a 

 history of the Numantine war, in which we may presume the account 

 here referred to was contained. B. 



3 Although these accounts of the generosity and clemency of the lion 

 are in a great measure fabulous, still the accounts of those who have had 

 the best opportunity of becoming acquainted with the character of differ- 

 ent animals, agree in ascribing to it less ferocity and brutality, in pro- 

 portion to its size and strength, than to other animals of the same family. B. 



