LIONS AND TIGERS. 233 



These disgraceful spectacles lasted in Rome for four 

 hundred years, and resulted in the butchery of over 

 one hundred thousand lions, besides tigers and elephants 

 to an equal number. Persia, Asia Minor, and Arabia 

 were delivered from these dangerous wild animals, and 

 it is now very difficult to study the habits, especially of 

 the first, except in menageries and, wild, in the south of 

 India, Algeria, and Arabia. It was in the latter country 

 that I had an adventure that proved conclusively to my 

 mind the curious lack of maternal instinct in the lion, 

 in which respect, as in so many others, this overestimated 

 animal compares unfavorably with the elephant, — the 

 real king of beasts. 



One fine September morning, before sunrise, I left the 

 charming village of Saida, a favorite resort of Arabians, 

 accompanied by two Arab horsemen devoted to my service. 

 We were mounted on superb horses, — types of those for 

 wdiich the country is famous, — and travelled at a break- 

 neck pace. The river, which flows from the high plateaus 

 toward which we were riding, makes a sudden turn 

 through the range of mountains just above the village 

 to which it gives its name, and flows deep below in a 

 gorge covered in with vines and laurel blooms. After 

 riding a regular steeple-chase for fully an hour, we were 

 obliged to proceed at a slower pace, as the soil became 

 more sandy and the sun hotter. At last we were brought 

 to a stand-still by the heat, and decided to rest in the 

 shade of one of the groups of trees that here and there 



