CHAPTER I. 



THE KING OF BEASTS. 



" De Lion, lie wuz dere, kaze he wtiz de King, en he hatter be dere. 

 En w'en de Lion shuck his inane, en tuck his seat in de big cheer, den de 

 sesshun begun for ter commence." UNCLE REMUS. 



Is be king or coward ? That is a question which has 

 been raised in these later unheroic days. We have been 

 so accustomed to regard the lion as the type of kingly 

 magnanimity, that it seems almost like listening to a piece 

 of impiety when it is suggested that Leo the Magnificent 

 is in truth a sneaking, cowardly, underhand beast, who 

 cannot even meet a timid, soft-eyed antelope face to face, 

 but always attacks his prey from the rear and in the dusky 

 half-light of evening. And yet this is not only suggested 

 but maintained with no little show of reason ; by those, too, 

 who have hunted the lion and seen him in his native 

 haunts. Dr. Sparrman says : " From all the most credible 

 accounts that I could collect concerning lions, as well as 

 from what I saw myself, I think I may safely conclude that 

 this beast is a great coward." Livingstone also tells us that 

 nothing he ever learned of the lion could lead him to 

 attribute to this animal either the ferocious or the noble 

 character so often ascribed to it ; and he makes invidious 

 comparisons between the roar of the king of beasts and the 

 voice of the ostrich ! Selous grants him his roar, considering 



