474 THE FELID/E OF THE OLD WORLD 



which they use is the entrails of a caterpillar named N'gwa, half 

 an inch long. They squeeze out these, and place them all 

 around the bottom of the barb, and allow the poison to dry in the 

 sun. "They are very careful in cleaning their nails after working 

 with it, as a small portion introduced into a scratch acts like 

 morbid matter in dissection wounds. The agony is so great 

 that the person cuts himself, calls for his mother's breast, as if 

 he were returned in idea to his childhood again, or flies from 

 human habitations a raging maniac. The effects on the lion 

 are equally terrible. He is heard moaning in distress, and 

 becomes furious, biting the trees and ground in rage." 



The Arabs of the Atlas consider it much less dangerous to hunt 

 the lion himself than to rob him of his young. Daily about 

 three or four o'clock in the afternoon, the parent lions roam 

 about, most likely to espy some future prey. They are seen 

 upon a rising ground surveying the encampment, the smoke 

 arising from the tents, the places where the cattle is preserved, 

 and soon after retire with a deep growl. 



During this absence from their den, the Bedouins cautiously 

 approach to seize the young, taking good care to gag them, as 

 their cries would infallibly attract the parent lion. After a 

 razzia like this, the whole neighbourhood increases its vigilance, 

 as for the next seven or eight days the fury of the lion knows 

 no bounds, and it would then not be well to meet his eye. 



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

 Europe. Herodotus relates that troops of lions came do^vn the 

 Macedonian mountains, to seize upon the baggage camels of 

 Xerxes' army, and even under Alexander the Great, 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 Gulf, and the north- 

 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 tlie 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 



