CAPRICIOUS TEMPER. 109 



us. In this position ho looked truly magnificent, 

 roaring with mingled joy and anger. His powerful 

 tongue was licking in blissful happiness the hand I 

 had given up to him, whilst his enormous paws were 

 softly trying to draw me towards him. 



" If anyone else attempted to come near, Hubert 

 broke out into a most appalling fury ; but as soon 

 as they retired he became calm and affectionate as 

 before. 



" I cannot express how painful our parting was on 

 that day. Twenty times I returned to try to mako 

 him comprehend that he should see me again, and 

 every time I withdrew he shook the whole gallery 

 with his tremendous bounds and roars." 



When in confinement, however, the temper of the 

 lion is somewhat capricious ; and submissive as ho 

 may be, as a rule, to his master or keeper, but little 

 at times would seem to rouse his anger, when, 

 from the most docile, he all at once becomes the 

 most savage and ferocious of beasts, of which many 

 lamentable instances are on record. 



Labat, for instance, makes mention of a gentle- 

 man who kept a lion in his chamber and employed 

 a servant to attend it, but the latter, as usual, mixed 

 his caresses with blows. This ill-judged association 

 continued for some time. One morning the gentle- 

 man was awakened by an unusual noise in his room, 

 and drawing the curtains, he perceived it to ju. coed 

 from the lion, which was growling over the ' y of 

 the unhappy man, whom he had just killed, and \ hose 

 head he had separated from his body. The terror and 

 confusion of the gentleman may be readily conceived ; 



