TRUTH ABOUT THE LION. 301 



barking of dogs, and the shouts of men, women, and children, or a 

 blow from a well-applied whip, will frequently put to flight. Even if 

 provoked, or wounded by man, he will often refuse to fight to the last 

 extremity; or if he accept the challenge, and succeed in harassing his 

 antagonist, he contents himself by breaking a limb or two, by mark- 

 ing his chest with his teeth and nails, after which he leaves him and 

 goes his way. "I have known," says Delegorgue, "an intrepid hunter 

 who, twice in seven years, had been treated in this fashion by a 

 wounded lion; the first encounter cost him two broken limbs; the 

 second, six fractures, without counting the deep scars left by his claws 

 on several parts of the body. Another, named Vermaes, in his daring, 

 was held for more than a minute by a lion, and got quit with 

 four deep marks of his canine teeth; glorious scars, which he showed 

 to me with an air of lively satisfaction." Livingstone records a 

 similar adventure which befell himself with a lion at which he 

 had aimed a couple of shots. The wounded animal turned upon his 

 aggressor, harried him, severely injured an arm, and then directed his 

 wrath against one of the doctor's companions, whom he seized by the 

 shoulder. He intended, in all probability, to administer a similar cor- 

 rection to this individual, when suddenly the two bullets he had 

 received produced their effect, and he fell dead. 



These facts prove, at least, that if the lion is not brave he is not 

 malicious, and that the reputation for generosity which he has borne 

 from remote times was riot undeserved. It is only in his old age that 

 the lion willingly enters upon a regimen of human flesh, from sheer 

 want of power to obtain any other easily. When a lion is too old, says 

 Livingstone, to provide himself with game by hunting, he frequently 

 enters into the very villages and kills the goats ; if, then, a woman 

 or a child go out at night, he makes them equally his prey; and as 

 thenceforth he has no other means of subsistence, he continues to 

 feed himself in this manner. Hence has arisen the saying, that if a 

 lion once tastes human flesh he prefers it to all other kinds. The 

 beasts which attack man are invariably aged lions. When one of 

 them conquers the fear inspired by man so far as to approach a 



