Felid.s.- 



-MAMMALIA.- 



-Felid.e. 



123 



Starting, and looking half round, I saw the lion just in 

 tlie act of springing upon me. I was upon a little 

 height ; ho caught my shoulder as he sprang, and we 

 both came to the ground below together. Growling 

 horribly close to m}' ear, he shook me as a terrier dog 

 does a rat. The shock produced a stupor similar to 

 that which seems to he felt by a mouse after the first 

 shake of the eat. It caused a sort of dreaminess, in 

 which there was no sense of pain nor feeling of terror, 

 though quite conscious of all that was happening. It 

 was like what patients partially under the influence of 

 chloroform describe, who see all the operation, but feel 

 not the knife. This singular condition was not the 

 result of any mental process. The shake annihilated 

 fear, and allowed no sense of horror in looking round 

 at the beast. This peculiar state is probably produced 

 in all animals killed by the Carnivora; and if so, is a 

 merciful provision by our benevolent Creator for lessen- 

 ing the pain of death. Turning round to relieve myself 

 of the weight, as he had one paw on the back of my 

 head, I saw his eyes directed to Mebalwe, who was 

 trying to shoot him at a distance of ten or fifteen yards. 

 Ills gun, a flint one, missed fire in both barrels; the 

 lion immediately left me, and, attacking Jlebalwe, bit 

 his thigli. Another man, whose life I had saved before, 

 after he had been tossed by a buflalo, attempted to spear 

 the lion while he was biting IMebahve. lie left Mebalwe 

 and caught this man by the shoulder ; but at that 

 moment the bullets he had received took eftect, and he 

 fell down dead. The whole was the work of a few 

 moments, and must have been his paroxysm of dying 

 rage. In order to take out the charm from him, the 

 Bakatla on the following day made a huge bonfire over 

 tlic carcase, which was declared to be that of the largest 

 lion they had ever seen. Besides crunching the bone 

 into splinters, he left eleven teeth wounds in the upper 

 part of my arm." 



In attacks on the more powerful quadrupeds, the 

 lion seldom approaches them singly. Tlius, Messrs. 

 Oswell and Vardon witnessed three male lions pulling 

 down a buflalo, and they were enabled to shoot two of 

 tlic plunderers on the spot. Again, Mr. Andersson saw 

 no less than five lions, two of which were in the act of 

 similarly destroying "a splendid giraffe, the other three 

 watching close at hand," ready to take part in the 

 deadly strife. The last-named sportsman also mentions 

 two instances wliere the lion had been guilty of canni- 

 balism. In one case a male had devoured a lioness, 

 having apparently quarrelled over an insufficient meal, 

 consisting of a spring-bok, on which they had evidently 

 been feasting together ! In the other case, after Jlr. 

 Andersson and his friends had severely wounded a 

 male, a whole troop of lions immediately rushed upon 

 their disabled brother and tore him to pieces. In all 

 these incidents (he true cowardly character of the species 



is very conspicuous, and it cannot therefore be afllrmed, 

 we repeat, that the lion is either brave or magnanimous. 

 In regard to the power of the lion's roar, Dr. Living- 

 stone's observations are too important to pass un- 

 noticed — " The same feeling," says this emineiit 

 traveller, " which has induced the modern painter to 

 caricature the lion, has led the sentimentalist to con- 

 sider the lion's roar the most ten-ific of all earthlj' 

 sounds. We hear of the ' majestic roar of the king of 

 beasts.' It is indeed well calculated to inspire fear if 

 you hear it in combination with the trcmondouslj' loud 

 thunder of that country, on a night so pitchy dark that 

 every flash of the intensely vivid lightning leaves you 

 with the impression of stone-blindness, while the rain 

 pours down so fast that your fire goes out, leaving you 

 without the protection of even a tree, or the chance of 

 your gun going ofl'. But when j'ou are in a comfort- 

 able house or waggon the case is very difierent, and 

 you hear the roar of the lion without any awe or alarm. 

 The silly ostrich makes a noise as loud, yet he never 

 was feared by man. To talk of the majestic roar of 

 the lion is mere majestic twaddle. On my mentioning 

 this fact some years ago, the assertion was doubted, so 

 I have been careful ever since to inquire the opinions 

 of Europeans, who have heard both, if they could 

 detect any diflbrenco between the roar of a lion and 

 that of an ostrich; the invariable answer was, that they 

 could not when the animal was at any distance. The 

 natives assert that they can detect a variation between 

 the commencement of the noise of each. There is, it 

 must be admitted, a considerable difference between 

 the singing noise of a lion when full, and his deep, gruff 

 voice when hungry. In general the lion's voice seems 

 to come deeper from the chest than that of the ostrich ; 

 but to this day I can distinguish between them with 

 certainty only by knowing that the ostrich roars by 

 day and the lion by night." The lion, as we have 

 seen, is rather timid than courageous ; the testimony of 

 Burchell, Harris, Gumming, Andersson, Livingstone, 

 and many others, clearly showing that it entertains 

 great fear of man. Whilst this mighty beast is actually 

 enjoying a hearty meal, by merely walking up. Captain 

 Harris causes it to march off forthwith. Many similar 

 incidents are also recorded by these distinguished 

 travellers ; Dr. Livingstone going so far as to assure ns, 

 that there is " more danger of being run over when 

 walking in the streets of Loudon than of being devoured 

 by lions in Africa, unless engaged in hunting the ani- 

 mal." Lions are still very abundant in the interior of 

 that country, but, with an extending civilization, and a 

 more constant supply of fire-arms to the natives, it may 

 be fairly predicted that the regions of the south will ere 

 long become as completely emptied of this huge beast 

 of prey, as have been the-once infested districts of 

 Greece and Asia Minor. 



