262 TRAVELS IN AFRICA, 
The lion and leopard, though common in a certain diftrid, 
are not found near the feat of government. The Arabs hunt 
them, ftrip off the fkin, which they fell, and often eat the flefli, 
which they conceive generates courage and a warlike difpofition. 
They occafionally take them young, and bring them for fale to 
the Jelabs, who fometimes carry them as prefents to the great 
men in Egypt. I purchafed two lions : the one was only four 
months old when I bought him. By degrees, having little elfe 
to employ me, I had rendered him fo tame, that he had acquired 
moft of the habits of a dog. He fatiated himfelf twice a week 
with the offal of the butchers, and then commonly flept for fe- 
veral hours fucceffively. When food was given them they both 
grew ferocious towards each other, and towards' any one who 
approached them. Except at that time, though both were males, 
I never faw them difagree, nor fhew any fign of ferocity towards 
the human race. Even lambs palTed them unmolefted. The 
largeft had grown to the height of thirty inches and a half over 
the fhoulders. 
The enniii of a painful detention, devoid of books and rational 
fociety, was foftened by the company of thefe animals ; and the 
fatisfadtion was not fmall, even from this fpecies of diverfion. 
At length, towards the end of my ftay, after they had been with 
me more than two years, finding it impolfible, under the cir- 
cumftances I then was, to carry them with me, I fhot the one ; 
and the other, either from difeafe or the lofs of his companion, 
died a few days afterwards. The Sultan had alfo two tame lions, 
which, with their attendant, came into the market to feed. 
The 
