VOYAGE UP WHITE NILE 
79 
more. Listening in the darkness, one realises the power 
and majesty of the Lion, King of Beasts, strolling forth 
under the pall of night to devour whichever of his subjects 
first suits his royal convenience. 
It has become a vogue to depreciate the lion and to 
question his kingship. That is not fair, for no lion ever 
set up such silly claim. Most men who see lions nowa¬ 
days, see them not in natural conditions, but as ridden- 
out by mounted Somalis, or mobbed from covert by a 
crowd of beaters and dogs into the unaccustomed light 
of day. The lion is not then apt to show himself to full 
advantage. His main sentiment is one of annoyance at 
being disturbed : his main object to gain some quieter 
spot to sleep off his overnight meal in peace. Hence he is 
not then “rampant”—all teeth and toe-nails—as depicted 
in armorial bearings, trade-marks, or heraldic designs. 
Hustle him too closely and not even in broad noontide 
will the lion disgrace his overlordship. But after all the 
lion is nocturnal, and it is then, when the mantle of night 
overshadows the tropical forest, that a truer appreciation 
of his majesty can be realised. 
Such ideas as a kingship among beasts are, of course, 
purely poetic and imaginary. They are calculated, more¬ 
over, unless clearly so understood, to foster utterly 
erroneous impressions of wild-life in the wilderness. To 
me they have a “ cockney ” savour, nor have they any place 
outside a “Jungle-book,” wherein animals speak and think 
and so on. The untaught savage of Africa who reads 
no rubbish but who lives his life among wild beasts, 
intuitively assigns to each its due degree of danger in 
truer proportion than some white men who write on such 
subjects ; and he invariably gives the lion first place. 
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