HIS ROAR. 157 



is in much more danger of being run over when walking in the 

 streets of London, than he is of being devoured by lions in Africa, 

 unless engaged in hunting the animal. Indeed, nothing that I 

 have seen or heard about lions would constitute a barrier in the 

 way of men of ordinary courage and enterprise. 



The same feeling which has induced the modern painter to 

 caricature the lion, has led the sentimentalist to consider the 

 lion's roar the most terrific of all earthly sounds. We hear of the 

 "majestic roar of the king of beasts." It is, indeed, well cal- 

 culated to inspire fear if you hear it in combination with the 

 tremendously 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 off. But when 

 you are in a comfortable house or wagon, the case is very dif- 

 ferent, 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 majes- 

 tic 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 de- 

 tect any difference 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, considerable difference between the sing- 

 ing noise of a lion when full, and his deep, gruff growl when hun- 

 gry. 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 African lion is of a tawny color, like that of some mas- 

 tiffs. The mane in the male is large, and gives the idea of great 

 power. In some lions the ends of the hair of the mane are black; 

 these go by the name of black-maned lions, though as a whole 

 all look of the yellow tawny color. At the time of the discovery 

 of the lake, Messrs. Oswell and Wilson shot two specimens of 

 another variety. One was an old lion, whose teeth were mere 



