CHAPTER XXVII. 
SOUTH AFRICAN LIONS. 
Now for the lordly King of Beasts! As these wild African 
Hunters found him, the grandeur of his ancestral name is 
not a little heightened. There are some pictures of this 
South African monarch of the wastes furnished as well by 
the daring missionaries of the Christian Church in this 
direction, which are quite as striking as those given by the 
professional Hunters themselves. These we shall give after 
first taking the general sketch of the habits of the animal 
furnished by Cumming. 
The night of the 19th was to me rather a memorable one, 
as being the first on which I had the satisfaction of hearing 
the deep-toned thunder of the lion’s roar. Although there 
was no one near to inform me by what beast the haughty 
and impressive sounds which echoed through the wilderness 
were produced, I had little difficulty in divining. There was 
no mistake about it; and on hearing it I at once knew, as 
well as if accustomed to the sound from my infancy, that 
the appalling roar which was uttered within half a mile 
of me was no other than that of the mighty and terrible 
king of beasts. Although the dignified and truly monarch- 
ical appearance of the lion has long renJered him famous 
among his fellow quadrupeds, and his appearance and habits 
have often been described by abler pens than mine, never- 
theless I consider that a few remarks, resulting from my 
own personal experience, formed by a tolerably long acquaint- 
ance with them both by day and by night, may not rrove 
aninteresting to the reader. There is something so noble 
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