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. They would seem, however, to be inferior in power
to those of the Indian tiger. Most of those feats of strength
that I have seen performed by lions, such as the taking away of an ox,
were not carrying, but dragging or trailing the carcass along the ground:
they have sprung on some occasions on to the hind-quarters of a horse,
but no one has ever seen them on the withers of a giraffe.
They do not mount on the hind-quarters of an eland even,
but try to tear him down with their claws. Messrs. Oswell and Vardon
once saw three lions endeavoring to drag down a buffalo,
and they were unable to do so for a time, though he was then mortally wounded
by a two-ounce ball.*
-
* This singular encounter, in the words of an eye-witness,
happened as follows:
"My South African Journal is now before me, and I have got hold
of the account of the lion and buffalo affair; here it is:
`15th September, 1846. Oswell and I were riding this afternoon
along the banks of the Limpopo, when a waterbuck started in front of us.
I dismounted, and was following it through the jungle,
when three buffaloes got up, and, after going a little distance,
stood still, and the nearest bull turned round and looked at me.
A ball from the two-ouncer crashed into his shoulder, and they all three
made off. Oswell and I followed as soon as I had reloaded,
and when we were in sight of the buffalo, and gaining on him
at every stride, three lions leaped on the unfortunate brute;
he bellowed most lustily as he kept up a kind of running fight,
but he was, of course, soon overpowered and pulled down.
We had a fine view of the struggle, and saw the lions on their hind legs
tearing away with teeth and claws in most ferocious style. We crept up
within thirty yards, and, kneeling down, blazed away at the lions.
My rifle was a single barrel, and I had no spare gun.
One lion fell dead almost ON the buffalo; he had merely time
to turn toward us, seize a bush with his teeth, and drop dead
with the stick in his jaws. The second made off immediately;
and the third raised his head, coolly looked round for a moment,
then went on tearing and biting at the carcass as hard as ever.
We retired a short distance to load, then again advanced and fired.
The lion made off, but a ball that he received OUGHT to have stopped him,
as it went clean through his shoulder-blade. He was followed up and killed,
after having charged several times. Both lions were males.
It is not often that one BAGS a brace of lions and a bull buffalo
in about ten minutes. It was an exciting adventure,
and I shall never forget it.'
"Such, my dear Livingstone, is the plain unvarnished account.
The buffalo had, of course, gone close to where the lions
were lying down for the day; and they, seeing him lame and bleeding,
thought the opportunity too good a one to be lost.
Ever yours,
Frank Vardon."
-
In general the lion seizes the animal he is attacking by the flank
near the hind leg, or by the throat below the jaw. It is questionable
whether he ever attempts to seize an animal by the withers.
The flank is the most common point of attack, and that is the part
he begins to feast on first. The natives and lions are very similar
in their tastes in the selection of tit-bits: an eland may be seen
disemboweled by a lion so completely that he scarcely seems cut up at all.
The bowels and fatty parts form a full meal for even the largest lion.
The jackal comes sniffing about, and sometimes suffers for his temerity
by a stroke from the lion's paw laying him dead. When gorged,
the lion falls fast asleep, and is then easily dispatched.
Hunting a lion with dogs involves very little danger as compared
with hunting the Indian tiger, because the dogs bring him out of cover
and make him stand at bay, giving the hunter plenty of time
for a good deliberate shot.
Where game is abundant, there you may expect lions in proportionately
large numbers. They are never seen in herds, but six or eight,
probably one family, occasionally hunt together. One is in
much more danger of being run over when walking in the streets of London,
than he is of being devoured by lions in Africa, unless engaged
in hunting the animal. Indeed, nothing that I have seen or heard about lions
would constitute a barrier in the way of men of ordinary
courage and enterprise.
The same feeling which has induced the modern painter to caricature the lion,
has led the sentimentalist to consider the lion's roar the most terrific
of all earthly sounds. We hear of the "majestic roar of the king of beasts."
It is, indeed, well calculated to inspire fear if you hear it
in combination with the tremendously loud thunder of that country,
on a night so pitchy dark that every flash of the intensely vivid lightning
leaves you with the impression of stone-blindness, while the rain
pours down so fast that your fire goes out, leaving you without
the protection of even a tree, or the chance of your gun going off.
But when you are in a comfortable house or wagon, the case is very different,
and you hear the roar of the lion without any awe or alarm.
The silly ostrich makes a noise as loud, yet he never was feared by man.
To talk of the majestic roar of the lion is mere majestic twaddle.
On my mentioning this fact some years ago, the assertion was doubted,
so I have been careful ever since to inquire the opinions of Europeans,
who have heard both, if they could detect any difference between
the roar of a lion and that of an ostrich; the invariable answer was,
that they could not when the animal was at any distance.
The natives assert that they can detect a variation between
the commencement of the noise of each.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 63 of 295
Words from 64248 to 65362
of 306638
