﻿170 PLEISTOCENE MAMMALIA. 



The Lion is also mentioned in the ' Niebelungen Lied ' as having afforded sport to Sir 

 Siegfried in the famous hunt in the Forest of Worms •} 



961. 

 " With that an aged huntsman a watchful limehound took, 

 And shortly brought the champion into a shady nook, 

 Where store of beasts were couching ; as each sprang from his lair, 

 The warriors, like good hunters, fell on and caught them there. 



962. 

 "All that the limehound started, anon with mighty hand 

 Were slain by noble Siegfried, the chief of Netherland. 

 No beast could there outrun him, so swift his steed could race : 

 He won from all high praises for mastery in the chase. 



963. 

 "Whatever he attempted, he went the best before. 

 The first beast he encounter'd was a fierce half-bred boar. 

 Him with a mighty death-stroke he stretched upon the ground ; 

 Just after in a thicket a lion huge he found. 



964. 

 " Him the limehound started ; his bow Sir Siegfried drew ; 

 With a keen-headed arrow he shot the lion through, 

 But three faint bounds thereafter the dying monster made. 

 His wondering fellow-huntsmen thanks to Sir Siegfried paid." 



This passage, however, does not prove that the Lion dwelt in Bohemia at the time it 

 was written (a.d. 900 — 1300 ?), because the whole story, according to the high authority 

 of Prof. Max Muller, 2 is simply the ancient myth of Hercules appearing in a Gothic dress. 

 It is, moreover, unsupported by collateral evidence of any kind, and therefore cannot be 

 considered of historical value. 



§ 4. Cause of disappearance. The cause of the disappearance of the Lion from 

 Europe is very clear. The Leonine remains found in the ancient dwelling-places of 

 Aurignac and La Madelaine testify to the warfare carried on by the Reindeer folk in France 

 with the Post-glacial Lion, just as the story of the Nemean Lion, and the like, testify to 

 the struggle carried on by the ancient Greek with the same animal in Peloponnese. Man 

 cannot dwell at peace with the larger Carnivores. In exact proportion to his increase in 

 numbers they decrease, being driven out of the field in the struggle for life. It would be 

 almost possible to infer the want of civilisation and the small number of any people inha- 

 biting a district fitted for the support of the large ruminants, by the amount of the 

 carnivorous fauna. The fact, for example, that the Wolf lingered in Ireland as late as the 



1 'The Fall of the Nibelungers,' by W. Lettsom, 1850, p. 164. 

 2 ' Chips from a German Workshop,' vol. ii. 



