The Puma 301 



Felidce, but cruelty is. Injuries are soon forgotten, and 

 nobody ever knew a lion or tiger to act in this regard 

 like an elephant. The feline beast never forgets, how- 

 ever, or becomes indifferent to the joy of torture. That 

 is why it is fatal to fear it. The sight of this kind of 

 suffering excites all their fell tendencies. Accidents with 

 these animals are not results of abiding hate and premedi- 

 tated vengeance, but very often of sudden impulse excited 

 by the sight of apprehension. Deep, concentrated, persist- 

 ent feeling is beyond the Felida. This is why Dio Cassius' 

 story of Androcles and his lion is untrue ; quite as much 

 a romance of the affections as Balzac's " Passion du 

 Desert." Gerard's touching account of his reunion with 

 Hubert at the Jardin des Plantes fails, in his version of 

 the animal's feelings, for the same reason because it is 

 impossible. No doubt the lion he had reared was glad to 

 see him, but that is not what is conveyed. The picture 

 presented is too like that drawn by Homer of the behavior 

 of Ulysses' dog, when his "far-travelled" master came 

 back, an unrecognized stranger, to Ithaca. No wild beast 

 of the cat kind ever sat for that portrait. 



Shields and others inform us that on several occasions 

 "panthers" have been known to accompany women and 

 children for some distance, and play with them, caper 

 about their paths, and pull at their clothes, without doing 

 further harm than was produced by fright. That these 

 creatures act under the influence of playful moods is cer- 

 tain, but that a wild beast should come out of the woods 

 and in pure lightness of heart invite a perfect stranger to 

 romp, appears to be improbable. 



