The Lion Walked About With Great Unconcern, Confined Merely By A Small Rope Round His Neck, Held By The Negro

Who had caught him when he was not two months old, and having had him for a period of three

Months, now wished to part with him; he was about the size of a donkey colt, with very large limbs, and the people seemed to go very close to him without much alarm, notwithstanding he struck with his foot the leg of one man who stood in his way, and made the blood flow copiously. They opened the ring which was formed round the noble animal, as Major Denham approached, and coming within two or three yards of him, he fixed his eye upon him, in a way that excited sensations, which it was impossible to describe, and from which the major was awakened, by a fellow calling him to come nearer, at the same time laying his hand on the animal's back; a moment's recollection convinced him, that there could be no more danger nearer, than where he was, and he stepped boldly up beside the negro, and he believed he should have laid his hand on the lion the next moment, but the beast, after looking carelessly at him, brushed past his legs, broke the ring, overturning several who stood before him, and bounded off to another part, where there were fewer people.

It remained that Major Denham should be introduced to the sultan, in his royal residence at Birnie, where all the real state and pomp of the kingdom, with none of its real power were concentrated. On the 2nd March, the English accompanied Boo Khaloom to that city, and on their arrival, the following day was fixed for the interview. Fashion even in the most refined European courts, does not always follow the absolute guidance of taste or reason, and her magic power is often displayed in converting deformities into beauties, but there is certainly no court, of which the taste is so absurd, grotesque, and monstrous, as that to which Major Denham was now introduced. An enormous protruding belly, and a huge misshapen head, are the two features, without which it is vain to aspire to the rank of a courtier, or fine gentleman. The form, valued perhaps as the type of abundance and luxury, is esteemed so essential, that where nature has not bestowed, and the most excessive feeding and cramming cannot supply it, wadding is employed, and a false belly produced, which in riding appears to hang over the saddle. Turbans are also wrapped round the head, in fold after fold, till it appears swelled on one side to the most unnatural dimensions, and only one half of the face remains visible. The fictitious bulk of the lords of Bornou is still further augmented by drawing round them, even in this burning climate, ten or twelve successive robes of cotton or silk, while the whole is covered with numberless charms enclosed in green leathern cases.

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