156 



LETTER XXVII. 



as well as its skin, which is exceedingly beautiful, 

 being of a fine bright yellow, thickly diversified with 

 small black spots, disposed in clusters highly orna- 

 mental. When brought to Europe, the skins of these 

 animals are greatly esteemed. 



Their flesh is said to be as white as veal, and well 

 tasted : it is much relished by the negroes, who fre- 

 quently take them in pit-falls, covered at the top. and 

 baited with a morsel of some kind of flesh. The fe- 

 male negroes make collars of their teeth, which they 

 xvear as charms, and to which their imagination, 

 clouded by ignorance, and influenced by superstition, 

 its natural concomitant, has induced them to attribute 

 extraordinary virtues. 



When these animals cannot find a sufficient supply 

 of food in their native solitudes in the uncultivated 

 parts of Africa, they frequently come down in great 

 numbers into the lower Guinea, where they make 

 horrible devastations among the herds of cattle which 

 cover the plains of that fertile country, and spare no 

 living creature that has the misfortune to fall in their 

 \vuy. 



The late Sir* Ashton Lever kept a leopard in a cage 

 at Leicester-house, where it because so tame as always 

 to appear gratified bv attention and caresses; testify- 

 ing its pleasure by purring, and rubbing itself against 

 the bars like a cat. Sir Ashton presented it to the 

 royal menagerie in the Tower, where a person previ- 

 ously acquainted with it, went, after an interval of 

 more than twelve months, and was greatly surprised 

 to find himself, recognized by the animal, which be- 

 gan to renew its usual caresses. 



The general size of the African leopard is nearly 

 l-hat of a pretty large mastiff', arid few of them exceed 

 four fe<-t in length. 



THE PANTHER 



is equal in size to the largest of ow mastiff dogs, but 

 its legs are somewhat shorter, it is consequently larger 

 than the leopard, being frequently from five to six 

 feet long, whereas the latter, as already observed, sel- 

 dom exceeds four feet. It iukubks Africa from Baiv 



