44 
THE LION. 
at times subdued, and at others loud, told of their 
wrath and their sufferings. 
“ At the commencement of the battle, the lioness 
was crouched on her belly, and until its termination 
she evinced, by the wagging of her tail, the pleasure 
she experienced in seeing these two lions slaughter¬ 
ing each other. 
“When all was over, she advanced cautiously 
up to the corpses, smelt them, then retreated, and 
that without replying to the somewhat gross epithet 
(though applicable enough to the occasion) which 
Mohammed could not refrain from casting at her, 
in lieu of a bullet, which was out of his power, his 
gun, as I said, having fallen to the ground.” 
The period of gestation with the lioness is about 
four months (French naturalists say one hundred and 
eight days), and she usually brings forth her young 
in the most solitary, inaccessible places. The cubs 
are from two to four in number, according to the 
age and strength of the mother, but commonly 
there are only two, a male and a female. At their 
birth they are nearly as large as an adult female 
domestic cat, and their eyes are open, but 
they continue helpless for several weeks. When 
newly whelped, the fur is of a woolly or frizzled 
texture, the shade of colour a little darker than 
at a more mature age; and they are distinctly 
clouded or brushed with deep brown, and have a 
line of the same dark colour running along the 
centre of the back. About the commencement of 
the second year these markings begin to disappear. 
Whilst the cubs are young, they are harm- 
