THE TIGER. 46-3 



relying on the deadly certainty of his aim, and desirous of 

 acquiring fame by a display of chivalrous courage, rides forth 

 alone into the thicket, on a moonlight night, challenges the 

 lion with repeated shouts and imprecations, and lays him 

 prostrate before he can make his fatal bound. 



Dr. Livingstone informs us that the Bushmen likewise avail 

 themselves of the torpidity consequent upon a full meal, to 

 surprise the lion in his slumbers, and shoot him with their 

 poisoned arrows. 



In ancient times, the lion was an inhabitant of south-eastern 

 Europe. Herodotus relates that troops of lions came down the 

 Macedonian mountains, to seize upon the baggage camels of 

 Xerxes' army, and even in the time of Alexander the Grreat, the 

 animal, though rare, was not yet completely extirpated. 



In Asia also, where the lion is at present confined to Mesopo- 

 tamia, the northern coast of the Persian Grulf, and the nortli- 

 western part of Hindostan, he formerly roamed over far 

 more extensive domains. The Asiatic lion differs from the 

 African, by a more compressed form of body, a shorter mane, 

 which sometimes is almost entirely wanting, and a much larger 

 tuft of hair at the end of the tail. 



Africa is the chief seat of the lion, the part of the world 

 where he appears to perfection with all the attributes of his 

 peculiar strength and beauty. There he is found in the wilds 

 of the Atlas, as in the high mountain-lands of Abyssinia, from 

 the Cape to Senegal, and from Mozambique to Congo, and 

 probably more than one species of the royal animal, not yet 

 accurately distinguished by the natviralist, roams over this vast 

 expanse. 



While the lion reigns in Africa, the Tiger is lord and master 

 of the Indian jungles. A splendid animal — elegantly striped 

 with black on a white and golden ground ; graceful in every 

 movement, but of a most sanguinary and cruel nature. The 

 lengthened body resting on short legs, wants the proud bearing 

 of the lion, while the naked head, the wildly rolling eye, the 

 scarlet tongue constantly lolling from the jaws, and the whole 

 expression of the tiger's physiognomy, indicate an insatiable 



I thirst for blood, a pitiless ferocity, which he wreaks indiscrimi- 

 nately on every living thing that comes within his grasp. In 

 the bamboo jungle on the banks of pools and rivers, he waits 



