Lions Seem To Mean Here The Real King Of Beasts, And Not Tigers, As
Hereafter In The Book.
Tigers, though found on the S. and W. shores of the
Caspian, do not seem to exist in the Oxus valley.
On the other hand,
Rashiduddin tells us that, when Hulaku was reviewing his army after the
passage of the river, several lions were started, and two were killed. The
lions are also mentioned by Sidi 'Ali, the Turkish Admiral, further down
the valley towards Hazarasp: "We were obliged to fight with the lions day
and night, and no man dared to go alone for water." Moorcroft says of the
plain between Kunduz and the Oxus: "Deer, foxes, wolves, hogs, and lions
are numerous, the latter resembling those in the vicinity of Hariana" (in
Upper India). Wood also mentions lions in Kulab, and at Kila'chap on the
Oxus. Q. Curtius tells how Alexander killed a great lion in the country
north of the Oxus towards Samarkand. [A similar story is told of Timur in
The Mulfuzat Timury, translated by Major Charles Stewart, 1830 (p. 69):
"During the march '(near Balkh)' two lions made their appearance, one of
them a male, the other a female. I (Timur) resolved to kill them myself,
and having shot them both with arrows, I considered this circumstance as a
lucky omen." - H. C.] (Burnes, II. 200; Q. R. 155; Ilch. I. 90; J.
As. IX. 217; Moorcroft, II. 430; Wood, ed. 1872, pp. 259,260; Q. C.
VII.
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