10 ANIMAL SKETCHES. CHAP. 



a chorus of lions the grandest sound in nature ; he also, as 

 does Dr. Sparrman, admits his courage when hungry or 

 provoked ; but he questions his majesty. " It has always 

 appeared to me," he says, "that the word majestic is 

 singularly inappropriate to the lion in its wild state, as 

 when seen by daylight he always has a stealthy, furtive look 

 that entirely does away with the idea of majesty. To look 

 majestic he should hold his head high. This he seldom 

 does. When at bay, standing with open mouth and gleam- 

 ing eyes, holding his head low between his shoulders, and 

 keeping up a continuous low growling, twitching his tail 

 the while from side to side, no animal can look more 

 unpleasant than a lion ; but there is nothing majestic or 

 noble in his appearance." Sir Samuel Baker, however, than 

 whom there lives no higher authority, says of a lion he 

 encountered, " He rose majestically as we disturbed him by 

 our noise in breaking through the bushes." The hunter 

 put a bullet through his shoulder, rolling him over wounded 

 but not killed. He proceeded to reload, but the bullet 

 stuck. In this perplexity his Arab hunter advanced to- 

 wards the wounded lion, with his drawn sword grasped 

 firmly in his right hand, while his left held his projected 

 shield, and thus, unsupported and alone, this determined 

 fellow marched slowly forward until within a few yards of 

 the lion, which, instead of rushing to attack, crept like a 

 coward into impenetrable thorns, and was seen no more. 

 All this is to some of us very painful. We do not like to 

 have our heroes even our natural history heroes proved 

 to be less heroic than we had thought them to be. King 

 Richard of the Lion's Heart may not have been all that 

 romance once painted him, but no one has yet accused him 

 of cowardice. And yet the lion, his symbol and device, is 

 written down a coward. What a shattering of ideals ! We 

 have been wont to imagine that the one thing in nature 



