BECOLLECTIONS OF A LION TAMER 169 



permission to make my bow before the audience, whose 

 sympathies I had thus involuntarily aroused. I ad- 

 mit that my clothes were hardly in a fit condition for a 

 public appearance — I was covered from head to foot 

 with blood and sand ; one sleeve was in rags, the lappets 

 torn off my coat, and the collar altogether missing. Then 

 I had to submit to be taken home, put to bed, and let the 

 doctors examine my wounds. These numbered no less 

 than seventeen : my arms were lacerated, my shoulders 

 were beaten black and blue, while my throat — and this 

 was the most painful of all — was torn open. Three weeks 

 was I obliged to keep my bed, it was even reported that 

 I would never leave it. But, at length, I regained my 

 liberty, and the first use I made of it was to revisit the 

 menagerie. I had grown a thick beard, the collar of my 

 coat was turned up, and the brim of my hat slouched down 

 over my face, rendering me almost unrecognisable ; but 

 I had hardly set foot in the arena than Sultan scented me 

 and greeted me with an angry growl. Flattening himself 

 against the bars, he stood, his claws stretched out, ready 

 to spring upon me ; his eyes blazing with rage, and 

 every bristle on end, while the evil expression on his 

 horribly contorted face, plainly said : ' What ! not dead 

 yet ? Wait till the next time I get hold of you ! ' I could 

 with difficulty be prevented going into his cage and 

 paying off old scores at once ; but I was constrained to 

 content myself with visiting all my other friends, while 

 Sultan followed my every movement with an angry 

 eye. 



I was impatient, as soon as my health should be com- 

 pletely re-established, to begin my performances. When 

 that happy evening at length arrived I entered the cages 

 as calmly as of old, and the exercises were gone through 

 without any impediment. When it came to Sultan's 

 turn, to my surprise he contented himself with growling, 

 and did not attempt to attack me. I kept none the less 

 on my -guard, for I knew that he was revengeful, and 



