110 



CASSELL'S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



other people. They .In:,' a large circular pit, and at night introduced into it a goat, which they bound 

 ,,, . { Nljlk ..... . pjllw of earth lit the bottom, and then inclosed the pit with a hedge of branches, that it 



.,,uld ,,o, l,e Been, leaving no entrance. The lion, hearing in the night the voice of the goat, prowled 

 around tli.- hedge, and, finding no opening, leaped over, and was taken. 



When tin- hunter proposed to catch him in his toils, he stretched a series of nets in a semicircular 

 form, by means of long poles li\ed in the ground ; three men were placed in ambush, among the nets, 

 one in the middle, and one at each extremity. The toils being disposed in this manner, some waved 

 ll.imin- others made a noise by beating their shields, thinking that lions were not less terrified 



bv loud sounds than by fire. The men on foot and horseback, skilfully combining their movements, 

 and raising a great bustle and clamour, rushed in upon them, and drove them towards the nets, till, 

 intimidated bv (he shouts of the hunters and the glare of torches, they approached the snares of their 

 own an-onl, and became entangled in the folds. 



In the sandy deserts of Arabia, in some of the wild districts of Persia, and in the vast jungles of 

 India, the lion still maintains a precarious footing; but from the classic soil of Greece, as well as from 

 the whole of Asia Minor, both of which were once exposed to his ravages, he has been utterly dis- 

 lodged and extirpated. In the vast and untrodden solitudes of Africa, from the immense deserts of 

 the north to the trackless forests of the south, he reigns supreme and uncontrolled. From the Cape 

 of (iood Hope, however, he is annually retiring farther and farther before the persecution of man. 



The lion is subject to great individual variations, as to size, colour, and expression. It is therefore 

 difficult to determine whether the lion of Asia really differs more from the lion of South Africa than 

 the latter does from the lion of Ashantee, Barbary, or Nubia, or than any individual of these races 

 differ from one another. Some time ago it was alleged that the Asiatic lion differed from the African 

 lion in having no mane ; but a Goojerat lion, which lived in the Zoological Gardens for three years, 

 was as thoroughly nianed as the Nubian lion, of which the Society had a fine specimen seven years 

 old. A Babylonian lion which it now possesses is more fully maned, in proportion to his age, than 

 his neighbour the Cape lion. 



In colour lions vary from a deep red chesnut brown to gi'ay, so silvery, indeed, as to have given 

 rise to the belief that a race of white lions exists in South Africa. Equally various is the colour of 

 the mane. In the Nubian lion it is generally pale fulvous, and in the Cape lion black, but all inter- 

 mediate shades are discernible in Nubia and the Cape country. 



Dr. Livingstone says : " When a lion is met with in the day-time, a circumstance by no means 

 (infrequent to travellers in South Africa, if preconceived notions do not lead them to expect some- 

 thing very 'noble' or 'majestic,' they will see merely an animal somewhat larger than the biggest dog 

 they ever saw, and partaking very strongly of the canine features. Two of the largest I ever saw 

 seemed about as tall as common donkeys, but the mane made their bodies appear rather larger." 



A communication made to the Zoological Society of London accords with the popular belief that 

 the lion lashes his sides with his tail to stimulate himself into rage. To this Homer, Lucan, Pliny, 

 and others had all contributed, yet none of them advert to any peculiarity in the lion's tail to which 

 such a function might be attributed. Didymus Alexandrinus, a commentator on the "Iliad," having 

 found a black prickle-like thorn among the hair of the tail, immediately conjectured that he had 

 discovered the true cause of the stimulus when the lion flourishes his tail in defiance of his enemies. 

 And further, M. Deshayes announced that he had actually found the prickle both of a lion and a 

 lioness, which had died in the menagerie of Paris. He described it as a little nail or horny production, 

 about two inches in length, presenting the form of a small cone, a little recurved upon itself, and 

 adhering by its base only to the skin, and not to the last caudal vertebra, from which it was separated 

 by a space of two or three lines. 



I'roiu that time, (1<S2!),) Mr. Woods allowed no opportunity to escape him ol examining the tails of 



e\rry lion, living or dead, to which he could gain access. But in no instance did he succeed in finding 



a prickle till OIK- was placed in his hands obtained from the tip of the tail of a young Barbary lion i 



tin- Xoolo^ieal Society's menagerie, by Sir Thomas Reade, then the British consul at 



I npoli. II.- dead iln-d it as formed of corneous matter like an ordinary nail, and solid throughout the 



r part ol us length towards the apex, where it is sharp; and at the other extremity as hollow 



and a liuh- expanded. Its shupc was rather singular, being nearly straight for one-third of its length, 



