22 ANIMAL SKETCHES. CHAP. i. 



said, depends on the number and amiability, or the reverse, 

 of the old maids in those parts. Thus many old maids 

 mean many cats, and many cats mean few mice ; few mice 

 bring many bees, and many bees luxuriant clover ; good 

 clover crops mean good roast beef, on which depends the 

 vigour and force of character of the English race, who have 

 thus perhaps taken that great cat, the king of beasts, as 

 their device from purely zoological considerations. 



In conclusion I may perhaps be allowed to narrate the 

 following lion anecdote which, in the days gone by, puzzled 

 my child-mind not a little. My father used to tell of a 

 great tamer, in the days before Van Amburgh, who used to 

 place his head within the lion's jaws, but instructed his son 

 to tell him if ever on such an occasion the lion should 

 begin to wag his tail. At last, one fateful day, the little boy 

 exclaimed, " Father ! Father ! The lion's a- wagging his tail.' 

 And the father answered from within the lion's mouth, 

 "My son ! My son ! If the lion's a-wagging his tail your 

 father's a dead man." Whereupon the noble animal 

 snapped to his jaws and fulfilled the prediction by biting 

 off the man's head. Now the question is Why did the 

 tamer stop to make a little speech instead of at once with- 

 drawing his head ? This used to trouble me sorely. But 

 then I gradually came to see that if he had first removed 

 his head and then made his remark, what he said would 

 not have come true. This materially alters the position. 

 To have their firm convictions proved incorrect is highly 

 distasteful to many people. Doubtless it was so with the 

 lion tamer. On the other hand, to have one's head bitten 

 off and swallowed like a pill must also, I should suppose, 

 be highly distasteful. Doubtless the lion tamer found it 

 so, poor fellow. In any case he was in a delicate and 

 difficult position, and I should strongly advise all who read 

 these lines never to place their heads within the lion's 

 jaws lest they too should be in like case. 



