STEAK AU LION. 
35 
monarch of the desert by his inferiors, they some¬ 
times have the impertinence to feed in company with 
him on the same carcase. I myself have known 
this to be the case with the dog, the jackal,* and 
the hyena. 
It happens occasionally, however, that the in¬ 
truder pays dearly for his audacity. It is indeed 
asserted by more than one experienced hunter that, 
when the hyena proves troublesome, the lion has 
been known to bite off all its feet,f and when thus 
mutilated, leave the poor animal to its fate. Though 
unable to vouch for the truth of the story, yet, as 
in some degree corroborative of it, I may mention 
that I myself, on one occasion, fell in with a hyena 
walking on his four stumps. 
The flesh of the lion has a somewhat bad name 
with naturalists and others, who, though admitting 
that the natives of the countries inhabited by the 
beast occasionally partake of it, describe it as having 
a strong disagreeable smell and flavour. And M. 
Delegorgue, w r hen speaking of a lion that he had 
recently killed, goes so far as to say “ that the 
odour of it was so rank and disgusting that he had 
not the courage to taste it, but abandoned it to 
the vultures. 35 Of course it is not for me to con¬ 
tradict great authorities, but, as stated in the “ River 
* It is difficult to account for the popular notion as to the jackal 
being the lion’s provider. To my mind it would be far more correct 
to reverse the adage, and say that the lion caters for the jackal, as it is 
in great measure on the leavings of his royal friend that this pretty 
little animal subsists. 
f The same refined kind of cruelty has been witnessed amongst 
a certain species of African ants. 
D 2 
