Chap. 19.] 
LIONS. 
267 
go without food for three days. They swallow their food whole, 
without mastication, so far as they are able ; and when they 
have taken more than the stomach can possibly receive, they 
extract part of it by thrusting their claws into the throat ; the 
same too, if, when full, they have occasion to take to flight. 
That they are very long-lived is proved by the fact, that many 
of them are found without teeth. Polybius,^ the companion of 
^milianus, tells us, that when they become aged they will at- 
tack men, as they have no longer sufficient strength for the 
pursuit of wild beasts. It is then that they lay siege to the 
cities of Africa; and for this reason it was, that he, as well as 
Scipio, had seen some of them hung upon a cross ; it being 
supposed that others, through dread of a similar punishment, 
might be deterred from committing the like outrages. 
CHAP. 19. THE PECULTAK CHAEACTEE OE THE LIOH". 
The lion is the only one of all the wild beasts that shows 
mercy to the suppliant ; after it has conquered, it will spare,^ 
and when enraged, it will vent its fury rather upon men 
than women, and never upon children, unless when greatly 
pressed by hunger. It is the belief in Libya, that it fully un- 
derstands the entreaties which are addressed to it. At all events, 
I have heard it asserted as a fact, that a female slave, who was 
returning from Gsetulia, was attacked by a number of lions in 
the forests ; upon which she summoned sufficient courage to ad- 
dress them, and said that she was a woman, a fugitive, help- 
less creature, that she implored the compassion of the most 
generous of animals, the one that has the command of all the 
others, and that she was a prey unworthy of their high repute 
— and by these means effectually soothed their ferocity. There 
period without eating ; but tlae statement respecting its taking food on 
alternate days, is without foundation. There does not appear to be any- 
ground for the account of the mode by which it relieves the stomach when 
overcharged. — B. 
2 AYe learn from Cicero, Ep. Fam. B. v. Ep. 12, that Polyhius wrote a 
history of the Numantine war, in which we may presume the account 
here referred to was contained. — ^B. 
3 Although these accounts of the generosity and clemency of the lion 
are in a great measure fabulous, still the accounts of those who have had 
the best opportunity of becoming acquainted with the character of differ- 
ent animals, agree in ascribing to it less ferocity and brutality, in pro- 
portion to its size and strength, than to other animals of the same family. — B. 
