

THE LION.* 



Liox is the English name for the form iii which carnivorous development is generally considered to be 

 the most perfect. It is the Aitav of the Greeks, Atacva standing for lioness ; the leo of the Romans, 

 lea, and lecena, lioness ; the leone of the Italians, leonessa, lioness ; lean of the Spanish. ; lion of the 

 French, lionne, lioness, linceau, whelp ; lowe of the Germans, lijwinn, lioness. 



The true lions belong exclusively to the Old World, and they were formerly plentifully and 

 widely diffused, but confined at present to Africa and Asia they are daily becoming more scarce in 

 those parts of the earth. There can be no dovibt that lions were once found in Europe. Herodotus 

 records that the baggage camels of the army of Xerxes were attacked by lions, the other beasts 

 and the men remaining untouched, in the country of the Pseonians and Crestonsei, on their march from 

 Acanthus to Therme, afterwards Thessalonica, now Saloniki. Pausanias tells the same tale, and also 

 states that lions often descended into the plains at the foot of Olympus, which separates Macedonia 

 from Thessaly ; and that Polydamas, a celebrated athlete, slew one of them, though he was unarmed. 

 Pliny affirms that the lions of Europe were stronger than those of Africa and Syria. 



Lions have disappeared from other parts of the world, as Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, where 

 they once were evidently far from uncommon. Under the symbol of one of these creatures the power 

 of the Jewish nation is often described in the Sacred Volume. " Behold," cried Balaam, when from 

 the top of Pisgah he looked down on the innumerable tents of Israel, " the people shall rise up as a 

 great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion : he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink 

 the blood of the slain." t 



Ezekiel speaks of a lioness an animal with which Ids people must have been acquainted "she 

 brought up one of her whelps : it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey ; it devoured 

 men. Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over 

 him : he was taken in their pit." f Thus, there is an allusion to the practice of the Arabians and of 



* Ftilis Leo. 



f Numb, xx iii. 21. 



Ezek. xix. 3, 8. 



