CUBS FIERCE AND FEARFUL 15 



swallowing. Most remarkable was the way they 

 set about eating two of the fish their mother 

 provided for them. With the trout they began 

 at the head, but in the case of the eel they 

 attacked the part below the vent, leaving the 

 upper portion untouched. 



This fish diet produced a most significant 

 change : the cubs became fierce, and at the same 

 time fearful. No longer was any restraint needed 

 to keep them to the nest or to the holts in the 

 river -banks, where they occasionally lay ; no 

 longer had the mother any difficulty in getting 

 them to obey the dawn-cry and follow whither 

 she led. Henceforth the sense of dread lay on 

 their lives like a shadow and deepened with 

 their development. It was seen in their readi- 

 ness to crouch or make for the water at any 

 strange sound, in their suspicion of any strange 

 object. A bottle left on the bank by the water- 

 bailiff caused them to take a wide detour, and the 

 snapping of a stick under the foot of a lumbering 

 badger nearly frightened these noiseless movers 

 out of their wits. Once a thunderstorm terrified 

 them with its vivid flashes, and one day even a 

 brilliant rainbow was a source of alarm, until 

 their mother awoke and showed no concern. 



These trifling scares were followed towards the 



