236 HUNTING IN THE JUNGLE. 



rifles cracked, followed by terrible roars, and the two lions 

 fell side by side, dead. The female sprang to her feet to 

 the rescue of her lovers, but her second liound was her last, 

 and she too joined '' the greater number " and lay beside 

 her Romeo. My two Arabs proceeded to skin the prizes, — 

 all very fine specimens, and one of them of singularly 

 large size, — and to dress the favorite parts for supper. I 

 must confess, to my shame, that I never admired the 

 flavor or textvu'e of lion steaks, and I turned into the 

 thicket to find something more to my taste. Along the 

 river I shot a brace of ducks and a superb grebe which 

 I was carrying back toward camp, when, in a large fissure 

 in a calcareous rock, I saw three young lions on a bed of 

 leaves. They were lying across one another, like kittens, 

 and were evidently quite Avell grown. I climbed down 

 into the crevice, and. what was ni}^ astonishment, found 

 them all dead, — strangled, either by the mother, to 

 whom, in her new loves, they had proved an annoy- 

 ance, or by the father, in a sudden burst of anger. 

 We' carried them out of their nest, and their skins 

 added to the already large lor.d with which we set out 

 again for Saida the next morning. 



The tiger, to wdiose rarity I have above referred, is 

 to my thinking a more royal beast than the lion, for 

 what he loses in size and brute strength, he more than 

 makes up in grace, agility, and address. That this is 

 generally accepted in countries where he lives is proved 

 by the adjective '' royal " which is always coupled with 



