CHAPTER I. 



THE LION THAT HAS EATEN A MAN, AND THE ZOOLOGIST WHO HAS BEEN AT THE 

 COAST— TROUBLESOME DESIRES— CHOICE OF THE SCILLY ISLES— PENZANCE 

 LODGINGS — THE SAIL TO SCILLY : PURSUIT OP KNOWLEDGE UNDER DIFFI- 

 CULTIES—FIRST SIGHT OF THE ISLANDS— THEIR AREA AND POPULATION — 

 THEIR PICTURESQUENESS— THE CHANGEABLENESS OF ROCKS— ANTIQUITIES 

 OF SCILLY— THE INHABITANTS— PRIMITIVE STATE OF THE COMMERCE- 

 DINNER DIFFICULTIES— HOW THE TEN THOUSAND SALUTED THE SEA— LOVE 

 OF THE ENGLISH FOR THE SEA— HOMER— OUR FIRST DAT ON THE ROCKS— 

 THE NTMPHON GRACILE — THE COMATULA — ON OBSERVATION AND EXPERI- 

 MENT IN BIOLOGY— DO THE ANEMONES DIGEST '—MEANING OF DIGESTION- 

 ASSIMILATION AND DIGESTION — THE ACTINOPHRTS— FOOD AND BLOOD — 

 EXPERIMENTS ON THE ANEMONES — FOOD AND KNOWLEDGE. 



Between the lion that has once eaten a man — once tasted 

 the glory and. ambrosial delight of man-beef — and the lion 

 remotely ignorant of that flavour, there lies a chasm. Only 

 in zoological text-books can the two animals be considered 



O 



as of the same species. In profounder characteristics, in the 

 complexion of their souls, they differ as the Caucasian differs 

 from the Hottentot. The lion wlio has once fed on man, 

 carries with him an unforgettable experience ; he has supped 

 with the gods, and Homeric rhythms murmur in his ears. 

 Visions of that ecstatic hour hover before him in his lair, 

 accompany his moonlight marches through the mountain- 

 gorge, thrill him with retrospective flavours as he laps the 

 moonlit lake, and fill with a certain blissful torment all his 

 leisure moments. These \isions, like the after-glow of sun- 



