THE CHASE OF THE PANTHER. 85 



She might have been six or eight steps from me; exposing 

 her side with her head turned half away. I took aim between 

 her eye and ear. The sight rested on the spot, I pressed the 

 trigger, and the animal fell as though stunned by a thunder- 

 bolt, 



On examining my prize, I found the poor thing so attenu- 

 ated that I immediately opened her to discover the reason. 

 She had not eaten anything since the day she had first dis- 

 covered a man with his rifle, awaiting her at the mouth of 

 her den. 



After this experience, I have always give the panther the 

 credit for great suppleness and cunning, at the same time, 

 that she is timid and inoffensive. 



As the panther is endowed by nature with an immense 

 muscular force, and powerful arms, one can attribute this 

 cowardice only to an inherent fault in its organization, which 

 makes it like those men who are formed like Hercules, with 

 the strength of a race-horse, and the timidity of a woman 

 who was made ill by her chimney taking fire. 



The Arabs tell a tradition upon the subject, that is univer- 

 sally received among them, and which I give for what it is 

 worth, without affirming it to be strictly true. 



It occurred during the time w T hen animals were endowed 

 with the gift of tongues, which is a quite ancient era, as we 

 are all' well aware. 



A company of twenty lions while making a voyage in 

 foreign countries came to a forest inhabited by panthers, who 

 anxious in regard to the sentiments of the travellers, sent a 

 deputation to wait on the flowing-haired strangers. 



