4 Gleanings from the 



African lion with fine flowing mane ; the other, 

 which he defcribes as longer in fhape and more 

 ftraight-haired, might mean what is now known 

 as the manelefs lion of Gujerat. 1 An amufing 

 chapter of Aulus Gellius 2 arraigns Herodotus, 

 " the moft noble of hiftorians," for ftating that the 

 lionefs only brings forth once during her life, and 

 then only one cub, giving the marvellous reafon 

 which may be found in the third Book of Hero- 

 dotus, the laceration of the mother's internal 

 membranes by the fharp claws of the cub. Againft 

 this teftimony he quotes paflages of Homer, " the 

 moft illuftrious of poets," to fhow that lions 

 defended their cubs, not their cub ; and continues 

 by quoting Ariftotle on the point, who calls it 

 " an old woman's fable." But we incidentally 

 learn that lions had become fcarcer in Ariftotle's 

 time, a hundred years after Herodotus, as the 

 former fays, " The ftory hath been put together 

 from the fact of lions being fcarce, and the inventor 

 of the myth not knowing how to account other- 

 wife for this fact." Another inftance of credulity 

 immediately fucceeds this difcriminating remark, 

 which alfo mows the utterly uncritical ftate of 

 mind of the ancients, even of so diftinguifhed a 

 philofopher as Ariftotle, when the weighing of 

 evidence and collection of facts, which is fo rigor- 

 oufly exacted by the modern inductive philofophy, 

 is concerned. " The Syrian lions," he fays, " bear 

 at firft five cubs, next year four, and fo on down 

 to one, after which they never again generate." 

 1 AT. ; "De Anim. Hift.," ix., 31. 2 Ibid., xiii. 7. 



