THE AFRICAN LION IN ITS NATIVE HAUNTS. 
319 
as to the question of magnetic influence, I can only explain it 
on the ground of extreme terror ; for there are many examples 
cited of Arabs thus magnetized and led away by the lion, in 
the presence of other persons who had sufficient presence of 
mind not to succumb to his influence.* 
The variety of lion to which I have been referring is, in 
every other respect, a pattern of domestic virtue, which is more 
than can be said of his mate ; but as I have now almost reached 
the limits of the space allotted to me I must leave them to 
settle their differences, and conclude this brief and imperfect 
account of the habits of the king of beasts with a few remarks 
upon the last variety, the black lion, whi cb is the finest and 
most formidable of the species. 
This animal is not so common as the fawn-coloured or the 
grey one. Like the two latter, it takes six or eight years to 
arrive at its full growth, and its fife is of fifty or sixty years’ 
duration. With somewhat shorter legs, it is broader and more 
thickset than they are. The power of its jaws, chest, loins, 
and paws is so great, that it can clear an enclosure eight or ten 
feet high with a horse three years old between its teeth, I have 
myself witnessed this feat on more than one occasion. His 
habits pretty much resemble those of the two last-named 
varieties up to the age of twenty or thirty years, but then he 
becomes a man-eater, and causes terrible ravages on the fron- 
tiers of Tunis and Morocco, where he is the most frequently 
met with. The courage of this lion is really grand. It matters 
little to him by what numbers he is attacked, and whether it be 
by day or by night, he never flinches. I have seen one of these 
black lions charge into the midst of 300 Arab horsemen on an 
open plain, and drive them back almost to their encampment ; 
the boldest of them with their horses remained prostrate 
along his path. I have sometimes found the grey or fawn- 
* It is not our intention to enter upon the discussion of the subject of the 
fascination exercised by animals over their prey ; but we may mention that 
there are many instances on record of a somewhat similar power being pos- 
sessed by other animals. An anonymous writer, in the “Leisure Hour” 
(Nov. 1862), gives some examples of it in the stoat : he watched a rabbit 
trying to escape from the fascinating power of a stoat, around which it circu- 
lated, as if spell-bound, “ continually narrowing the circle in which it was 
running, whilst the stoat seemed to be watching for it to come near enough 
to spring at.” The narrator shot the stoat, and the rabbit then escaped. If, 
in our author’s case, the bull had made an effort to escape when the course 
of the lion was arrested, it would have been easy to explain the fascination 
on the same ground as in the case of the stoat and rabbit. We would also 
draw attention to the remarks on this subject in the review of Hartwig’s 
“ Tropical World” in our present number. 
