Chap. VII. 
HIS EOAE, 
141 
is in mucli more danger of being ran (wer when walking in the 
streets of London, than he is of being devoured by lions in Africa, 
unless engaged in hunting the animal. Indeed, nothing that I 
have seen or heard about lions would constitute a barrier in the 
way of men of ordinary courage and enterprise. 
The same feeling which has induced the modem painter to 
caricature the lion, has led the sentimentalist to consider 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 cal¬ 
culated 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 pom^s down 
so fast that your fire goes out, leaving you without the protection 
of even a tree, or the chance of your gun going off. But when 
you are in a comfortable house or waggon, the case is very dif¬ 
ferent, 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, considerable difference 
between the singing noise of a lion when full and his deep gruff 
growl 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 day and the lion by night. 
The African hon is of a tawny colour, like that of some 
mastiffs. The. mane in the male is large, and gives the idea of 
great power. In some Hons the ends of the hair of the mane are 
black ; these go by the name of black-maned lions, though as a 
whole all look of the yeUow tawny colour. At the time of the 
discovery of the lake, Messrs, Oswell and Wilson shot two speci¬ 
mens of another variety. One was an old lion, whose teeth were 
