i6 The Poets Beasts. 



tamed. Among the ancients it was considered a regular 

 appendage of the hunting cortege, being trained for the 

 chase, in Abyssinia notably, just as the lynx and cheetah are 

 trained still in the East. Nor were the Assyrians singular 

 in keeping this beast as a pet, for several heroes and kings 

 both to east and west of Nineveh are reported to have kept 

 tame lions ; while in art the docile species is by no means 

 infrequent — 



" About that king ran many a tame leon and leopart." 



And so we find, among others, St. Mark, St. John, and St. 

 Jerome, Sir Gwain de Galles, De Latour, Saladin, Hilde- 

 brand, Una, and the Fairie Queene, all maintaining lions as 

 pets or servants, while in the various classics, Cybele — 



" Four maned lions hale 

 The sluggish wheels ; solemn their toothed maws, 

 Their surly eyes brow-hidden, heavy paws 

 Uplifted drowsily, and nervy tails 

 Cowering their tawny brushes — 



and Bacchus, and Love, Indras, Prakrit, and Bala share 

 with other divinities and personages the dignity of a lion- 

 steed. 



Again, in popular works of fiction, from the "Arabian 

 Nights " to the " Pilgrim's Progress," the lion appears as a 

 janitor or guardian, faithfully ferocious to the suspicious- 

 looking stranger and the evil-doer, but as tame to its own 

 household and friends as Una's companion or Androcles' 

 acquaintance. 



Nor in this "ferocious" connection is it impertinent to 

 note how carefully the poets credited the fiction of the lion 

 finding it necessary to exasperate itself up to the necessary 

 point of fury by lashing its own body with its taiV just as 



' This fiction, it is just possible, arose from the curious claw like 

 prickle or "thorn" found sometimes at the tip of the animal's tail, and 

 for which naturalists are still puzzled to provide an explanation. 



