iv THE EYES OF LIONS 73 



entrails were hanging. No ; it is useless for the 

 scientist or the divine to tell an old hunter that 

 there is no cruelty in nature, because the man who 

 has spent many years of his life in a wild country 

 knows by actual experience that such an assertion 

 is not true. But let me return to my lions. 



In appearance a full-maned, well-proportioned 

 lion lying in peaceful repose in a European 

 menagerie, gazing placidly and thoughtfully out of 

 sleepy, brownish yellow eyes at the human crowd 

 beyond the bars of its cage, is a truly dignified and 

 majestic-looking animal ; and if a fine specimen of 

 a wild lion could be viewed at close quarters and at 

 a moment when it was lying or standing with its 

 massive mane-encircled head well raised, content 

 with itself and all the world, after a good meal, and 

 entirely unconscious of danger, it also would doubt- 

 less look both dignified and majestic, though I doubt 

 if it could ever look quite so reposeful as the typical 

 lion of the picture-books ; for although wild lions are 

 sometimes caught fast asleep, they are usually alert 

 and watchful. I have spoken of the eyes of lions 

 that have grown up in captivity as being brownish 

 in colour and somewhat sleepy in expression, and 

 that is the impression I have received from looking 

 at the lions in the Zoological Gardens in Regent's 



O O 



Park. On the other hand, I remember the colour 

 of the eyes of wild lions as being of a flaming yellow, 

 which retains its fierce brilliancy for many hours 

 after death. Should a lion be shot through the 

 loins and injured in such a way that, its hind- 

 quarters being paralysed, it can be closely approached 

 without danger, its fierce eyes seem ablaze with 

 bright yellow flame, and give complete expression 

 to the awful fury by which it is possessed. It is 

 worth mentioning, I think, that when visiting the 

 Zoological Gardens at Clifton, a couple of years ago, 

 I noticed that the eyes of the lions and tigers there 



