Chap. VII. HIS ROAR. 141 



is in muck more danger of being ran 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 waggon, 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 

 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 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 singing noise of a lion when full and Ins deep gruff 

 growl when hungry. In general the lion's voice seems to come 

 deeper from the chest than that of the ostrich ; but to tins day I 

 can distinguish between them with certainty oidy by knowing 

 that the ostrich roars by day and the Hon by night. 



The African lion is of a tawny colour, like that of some 

 mastiffs. 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* colour. At the time of the 

 discovery of the lake, Messrs. Oswell and Wilson shot two speci- 

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



