This Seems
Characteristic Of The Feline Species; When A Goat Is Picketed In India
For The Purpose Of Enabling The
Huntsmen to shoot a tiger by night,
if on a plain, he would whip off the animal so quickly by
A stroke of the paw
that no one could take aim; to obviate this, a small pit is dug,
and the goat is picketed to a stake in the bottom; a small stone is tied
in the ear of the goat, which makes him cry the whole night. When the tiger
sees the appearance of a trap, he walks round and round the pit,
and allows the hunter, who is lying in wait, to have a fair shot.
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* (Greek) sigma-tau-omicron-rho-gamma-eta.
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When a lion is very hungry, and lying in wait, the sight of an animal
may make him commence stalking it. In one case a man,
while stealthily crawling towards a rhinoceros, happened to glance behind him,
and found to his horror a lion STALKING HIM; he only escaped
by springing up a tree like a cat. At Lopepe a lioness sprang
on the after quarter of Mr. Oswell's horse, and when we came up to him
we found the marks of the claws on the horse, and a scratch on Mr. O.'s hand.
The horse, on feeling the lion on him, sprang away, and the rider, caught by
a wait-a-bit thorn, was brought to the ground and rendered insensible.
His dogs saved him. Another English gentleman (Captain Codrington)
was surprised in the same way, though not hunting the lion at the time,
but turning round he shot him dead in the neck. By accident
a horse belonging to Codrington ran away, but was stopped by the bridle
catching a stump; there he remained a prisoner two days,
and when found the whole space around was marked by the footprints of lions.
They had evidently been afraid to attack the haltered horse
from fear that it was a trap. Two lions came up by night
to within three yards of oxen tied to a wagon, and a sheep tied to a tree,
and stood roaring, but afraid to make a spring. On another occasion
one of our party was lying sound asleep and unconscious of danger
between two natives behind a bush at Mashue; the fire was nearly out
at their feet in consequence of all being completely tired out
by the fatigues of the previous day; a lion came up to within three yards
of the fire, and there commenced roaring instead of making a spring:
the fact of their riding-ox being tied to the bush was the only reason
the lion had for not following his instinct, and making a meal of flesh.
He then stood on a knoll three hundred yards distant, and roared all night,
and continued his growling as the party moved off by daylight next morning.
Nothing that I ever learned of the lion would lead me to attribute to it
either the ferocious or noble character ascribed to it elsewhere.
It possesses none of the nobility of the Newfoundland or St. Bernard dogs.
With respect to its great strength there can be no doubt.
The immense masses of muscle around its jaws, shoulders, and forearms
proclaim tremendous force.
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