340 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS chap, ix 
and two incisors in either jaw. The tongues are 
invariably rough, and in the lion and the tiger they 
are prickly to such a degree that flesh could be 
licked clean off the bone without the preliminary and 
impatient process of tearing by the teeth. 
The often-questioned thorn in the extreme end of a 
lion’s tail is by no means a fallacy ; this is a distinct 
termination in a sharp horny point, which, although 
only a quarter of an inch or less in length, is most 
decided. I do not consider that there is any special 
use for this termination, any more than there would 
be for the tuft of black hair which forms the 
extremity, and which conceals the thorny substance. 
