126 HABITS OF THE WON. 



shown by making their lions' faces like old women in 

 nightcaps. When encountered in the daytime., the lion 

 stands a second or two gazing, then turns slowly round, 

 and walks as slowly away for a dozen paces, looking over 

 his shoulder ; then begins to trot, and, when he thinks 

 himself out of sight, bounds off like a greyhound. By 

 day there is not, as a rule, the smallest danger of lions 

 which are not molested attacking man, nor even on a 

 clear moonlight night, except when they possess the 

 breeding o-ropyrj (natural affection) ; this makes them 

 brave almost any danger ; and if a man happens to cross 

 to the windward of them, both Hon and lioness will rush 

 at him, in the manner of a bitch with whelps. This does 

 not often happen, as I only became aware of two or three 

 instances of it. In one case a man, passing where the 

 wind blew from him to the animals, was bitten before he 

 could climb a tree ; and occasionally a man on horseback 

 has been caught by the leg under the same circumstances. 

 So general, however, is the sense of security on moonlight 

 nights that we seldom tied up our oxen, but let them lie 

 loose by the waggons ; while on a dark rainy night, if a 

 Hon is in the neighbourhood, he is almost sure to venture 

 to kill an ox. His approach is always stealthy, except 

 when wounded ; and any appearance of a trap is enough 

 to cause him to refrain from making the last spring. This 

 seems characteristic of the feHne species ; when a goat is 

 picketed in India for the purpose of enabHng the huntsman 

 to shoot a tiger by night, if on a plain, he would whip off 

 the animal so quickly by a stroke of the paw that no one 

 could take aim ; to obviate this, a smaU pit is dug, and 

 the goat is picketed to a stake in the bottom ; a 

 smaU stone is tied in the ear of the goat, which makes 

 him cry the whole night. When the tiger sees the 

 appearance of a trap, he walks round and round the 

 pit, and aUows the hunter, who is lying in wait, to have 

 a fair shot. 



When a Hon is very hungry, and lying in wait, the sight 

 of an animal may make him commence stalking it. In 

 one case a man, while stealthily crawling towards a 

 rhinoceros, happened to glance behind him, and found to 

 his horror a Hon stalking him ; he only escaped by springing 

 up a tree like a cat. At Lopepe a Honess sprang on the 

 after quarter of Mr. OsweU's horse, and when we came up 

 to him we found the marks of the claws on the horse, and 



