Feudj®. MAMMALIA. FelidjE. 123 
Starting, and looking half round, I saw the lion just in 
the act of springing upon me. I was upon a little 
height ; he caught my shoulder as he sprang, and we 
both came to the ground below together. Growling 
horribly close to mj'^ ear, he shook me as a terrier dog 
does a rat. The shock produced a stupor similar to 
that which seems to be felt by a mouse after the first 
shake of the cat. It caused a sort of dreaminess, in 
which there was no sense of pain nor feeling of terror, 
though quite conscious of all that was happening. It 
was like what patients partially under the influence of 
chloroform describe, who see all the operation, but feel 
not the knife. This singular condition was not the 
result of any mental process. The shake annihilated 
fear, and allowed no sense of horror in looking round 
at the beast. This peculiar state is probably produced 
in all animals killed by the Carnivora ; and if so, is a 
merciful provision by our benevolent Creator for lessen- 
ing the pain of death. Turning round to relieve myself 
of the weight, as he had one paw on the back of my 
head, I saw his eyes directed to Mebalwe, who was 
trying to shoot him at a distance of ten or fifteen yards. 
His gun, a flint one, missed fire in both barrels ; the 
lion immediately left me, and, attacking Mebalwe, bit 
his thigh. Another man, whose life I had saved before, 
after he had been tossed by a buffalo, attempted to spear 
the lion while he was biting Mebalwe. He left Mebalwe 
and caught this man by the shoulder; but at that 
moment the bullets he had received took effect, and he 
fell down dead. The whole was the work of a few 
moments, and must have been his paroxysm of dying 
rage. In order to take out the charm from him, the 
Bakatla on the following day made a huge bonfire over 
the carcase, which was declared to be that of the largest 
lion they had ever seen. Besides crunching the bone 
into splinters, he left eleven teeth wounds in the upper 
part of my arm.” 
In attacks on the more powerful quadrupeds, the 
lion seldom approaches them singly. Thus, Messrs. 
Oswell and Vardon witnessed three male lions pulling 
down a buffalo, and they were enabled to shoot two of 
the plunderers on the spot. Again, Mr. Andersson saw 
no less than five lions, two of which were in the act of 
similarly destroying “a splendid giraffe, the other three 
watching close at hand,” ready to take part in the 
deadly strife. The last-named sportsman also mentions 
two instances where the lion had been guilty of canni- 
balism. In one case a male had devoured a lioness, 
having apparently quarrelled over an insufficient meal, 
consisting of a spring-bok, on which they had evidently 
been feasting together ! In the other case, after Mr. 
Andersson and his friends had severely wounded a 
male, a whole troop of lions immediately rushed upon 
their disabled brother and tore him to pieces. In all 
these incidents the true cowardly character of the species 
is very conspicuous, and it cannot therefore be affirmed, 
we repeat, that the lion is either brave or magnanimous. 
In regard to the power of the lion’s roar. Dr. Living- 
stone’s observations are too important to pass un- 
noticed — “ The same feeling,” says this eminent 
traveller, “ which has induced the modern painter to 
caricature the lion, has led the sentimentalist to con- 
sider the lion’s roar the most terrific of all earthly 
sounds. We hear of the ‘ majestic roar of the king of 
beasts.’ It is indeed well calculated to inspire fear if 
you hear it in combination with the tremendously loud 
thunder of that country, on a night so pitchy dark that 
every flash of the intensely vivid lightning leaves you 
with the impression of stone-blindness, while the rain 
pours down so fast that your fire goes out, leaving you 
without the protection of even a tree, or tlie chance of 
your gun going off. But when you are in a comfort- 
able house or waggon the case is very different, and 
you hear the roar of the lion without any awe or alarm. 
The silly ostrich makes a noise as loud, yet he never 
was feared by man. To talk of the majestic roar of 
the lion is mere majestic twaddle. On my mentioning 
this fact some years ago, the assertion was doubted, so 
I have been careful ever since to inquire the opinions 
of Europeans, who have heard both, if they could 
detect any difference between the roar of a lion and 
that of an ostrich; the invariable answer was, that they 
could not when the animal was at any distance. The 
natives assert that they can detect a variation between 
the commencement of the noise of each. There is, it 
must be admitted, a considerable difference between 
the singing noise of a lion when full, and his deep, gruff 
voice when hungry. In general the lion’s voice seems 
to come deeper from the chest than that of the ostrich ; 
but to this day I can distinguish between them with 
certainty only by knowing that the ostrich roars by 
daj^ and the lion by night.” The lion, as we have 
seen, is rather timid than courageous; the testimony of 
Burchell, Harris, Gumming, Andersson, Livingstone, 
and many others, clearly showing that it entertains 
great fear of man. Whilst this mighty beast is actually 
enjoying a hearty meal, by merely walking up, Captain 
Harris causes it to march off forthwith. Many similar 
incidents are also recorded by these distinguished 
travellers ; Dr. Livingstone going so far as to assure us, 
that there is “ more danger of being run over when 
walking in the streets of London than of being devoured 
by lions in Africa, unless engaged in hunting the ani- 
mal.” Lions are still very abundant in the interior of 
that country, but, with an extending civilization, and a 
more constant supply of fire-arms to the natives, it may 
be fairly predicted that the regions of the south will ere 
long become as completely emptied of this huge beast 
of prey, as have been the-once infested districts of 
Greece and Asia Minor. 
