76 
ALMOST HUMAN 
THE HEAVENLY TWINS. 
In all the attempts to rear baby lions at the gardens it has very 
rarely been found possible to trust the real mother with the task of 
bringing up her own babies. So many cases of failure made the staff 
sceptical as to whether it was possible to risk it. In 1916 a beautiful 
lioness had a pair of handsome young cubs, but she knew that she was 
still in the gardens, and she knew that people were constantly passing 
by her den, because a few chinks had been left in between several of 
the boards that had been placed around her cage as a barricade between 
her and too inquisitive human beings. But even though she could not 
actually see them, she could discern the shadow show as it revolved 
daily past her cage, and so she got out of her difficulties with regard 
to her offspring by eating them. Then she came out of her hiding 
place, serene and unrepentant. The next year a second attempt was 
made to make her rear her own babies. This time every ray of sun- 
light was excluded; the place was so securely boarded up that her den 
was as dark as a vault, and no possibility remained of even the ghost 
of a shadow falling across her path. The success of the endeavor was 
so great that the authorities are now in possession of two of the hand- 
somest cubs to be seen anywhere, and the mother is so proud of them 
and so solicitous for their welfare that it seems quite incredible that she 
is the same mother that made a meal of her last babies. 
It was ten weeks before the authorities attempted to take the 
shutters down, so fearful were they lest she would resent publicity and 
lay violent hands upon her valuable children. But instead of resenting 
it she seemed to welcome the freedom and the light, and was very 
proud indeed to show her babies; although if too many people congre- 
gated around the cage at one time she would give a short, low, “huff!” 
and the two would go scampering inside, leaving the disappointed 
crowds to go away unsatisfied. The photograph of the happy young 
things was taken the day following their release from the darkness of 
the den, and although the mother kept a very watchful eye upon the 
photographer, and once or twice got a sharp claw uncomfortably near 
his hands, she behaved, on the whole, with admirable restraint as the 
babies posed for their first group picture. 
