testifies to the like effect. "As we were retiring to rest one night" writes the Missionary,
* Arab village, or rather encampment, as there, nomad people are constantly on the move from one locality to the other, in accordance with the season of the year, and the state of the pasturage, &c. The "Douar" usually consists of from ten to fifteen tents pitched in a circular form; and in the Winter time, at least, is commonly situated on the western slope of a hill the whole being surrounded by a, high and strong fence— with a single opening for the people and cattle.
THE ROAR AT MIDNIGHT.
when sojourning with some natives that he fell in with in his wanderings, who lived entirely on roots and the produce of the chase, and who seemed per- fectly versed in all the tactics of the lion—"one of those beasts passed near us, occasionally giving a roar, which softly died away on the extended plain, and it was responded to by another at a distance. Directing the attention of these Balala, and asking if they thought there was danger, they turned their ears as to a voice with which they were familiar, and after listening for a moment or two replied. *There is no danger, he has eaten and is going to sleep.' They were right, and we slept also. Asking them in the morning how they knew the lions were going to sleep, they replied: 'We live with them, they are our companions.''
Impressive and terrible as is the roar of the lion, cattle, unless they scent the beast, or have been previously wounded by him, would not appear to take so much notice of it as is generally repre- sented. I at least have known the lion to growl—ay, to roar most savagely—within gun-shot of my bivouac, and not an ox or sheep stirred.*
*What Anderson here tells us seems somewhat contradictory to the experiences of other travellers, to that of Moffat. at least, who at page 131 says: "One night we were quietly bivouacked at a small pool in the Orep river, where we never anticipated a visit from his majesty; we had just closed our united evening worship, the hook was still in my hand, and the closing notes of the song of praise had scarcely fallen from our lips, when the terrific roar of the lion was heard; our oxen, which before were quietly chewing the cud, rushed upon us, and over our fires, leaving us prostrated in a cloud of dust and sand; hats and hymn-books, our bible and our guns, were all scattered in wild confusion. Providentially no serious
THE LION.
And as further evidence of the little dread that domestic animals entertain for the lion's roar, or even for the beast himself, I may mention that it is a usual practice with the South African hunters, after having killed and flayed a lion, to strap his skin behind the saddle, and the horse, even when untrained to the chase, is rarely or never known to shew symptoms of fear. Gerard indeed tells us, he carried his first lion strapped on two mules placed side by side.
The length of a South African adult lion, from the nose to the extremity of the tail, I take to be from eleven to twelve feet, and its height from heel to shoulder, three and a-half feet and upwards. Indi- viduals are, however, said to attain to a still larger size.
Delegorgue when speaking of the District of Mas- selica, on the Eastern coast, where he hunted for some time, and where, from circumstances, he
injury was sustained; the oxen were pursued, brought black, and secured to the waggon, for we could ill Afford to lose any. Africaner, seeing the reluctance of the people to pursue in a dark and gloomy ravine, grasped a fire-brand, and exclaimed, 'Follow me,' and but for this promptness and intrepidity we must have lost some of our number, for nothing can exceed the terror of oxen at even the smell of a lion. Though they may happen to lie in the worst condition possible, worn out with fatigue and hunger, the moment the shaggy monster is perceived they start off like race-horses, with their tails erect, and sometimes days will elapse before they are found."—ED.
* The length of the dried skin of a wild beast is not to my mind any criterion of its real size when living, because in my own country, Sweden (and the like is probably the case in Africa), when the skin of a bear or wolf, for instance, is nailed up to the wall to dry, it is not infrequently drawn to an unnatural length, and one altogether disproportioned to its breadth.
SIZE AND WEIGHT.
thought, with some reason, that lions should be the largest and strongest of the race, goes on to say. *The dried skin* of one of these animals measured from nose to tail (the latter one metre in length) three metres, fifty centimetres."
The weight of the beast so far as I am aware has never been correctly ascertained, but it is very considerable; and as I should imagine, cannot be less than from five to six hundred pounds.
The lion inhabiting Northern Africa would seem to be fully as heavy as that common to the more southern portion of the continent. Gerard, when speaking of what he calls the "black lion," which he describes as a trifle less than either the "fawn-coloured" or the "grey," says: "The breadth of his forehead is a coudée, the length of his body from the nose to the insertion of the tail, which is a metre long, measures five coudées; the weight of his body varies between two hundred and seventy-five and three hundred kilos.''
Elsewhere, and when speaking of a huge lion (but the species or variety he does not name), killed in a great chasse at which he was present, he tells us that the beast must have weighed at least six hun- dred livres, or some six hundred and sixty-one and a-half English pounds.
The strength of the lion is enormous; in Algeria according to Gerard the Arabs say it is equal to that of forty men. Hans, my faithful attendant, told me he had known an instance where the beast had broken the back of a large ox whilst it was yet alive. This feat the lion accomplished when
THE LION.
planted, so to say, on the poor animal's bind quar- ters; for striking his claws deep into the neck of the victim, he, by a violent effort, brought its fore and hind quarters into such close proximity that the spine, as a natural consequence, was at once separated. He (Hans) told me, moreover, that on a certain occasion a lion seized one of his largest oxen by the muzzle, and dragged it away bodily to a dis- tance, when he killed and devoured it at his leisure. Thunberg's testimony is to the like effect. "The lion," he says, "is possessed of such immense strength that he will not only attack an ox of the largest size, but will very nimbly throw it over his shoulders, and leap over a fence four feet high with it, although at the same time the ox's legs hang dangling on the ground."
And Sparman tells us, "that he saw a lion in the Cape Colony take a heifer in his mouth, and though the legs trailed on the ground, he carried it off as a cat would a rat, and leaped a broad dike without the least difficulty."
But what Montgomery Martin relates as to the enormous strength of the lion, is still more extra- ordinary. After stating "that a young lion has been known to carry a good-sized horse a mile from the spot where he killed it," he goes on to say: "An instance occurred in the Sneemoberg, where one of these beasts carried off a two-year-old heifer; his "spoor" was followed by the hunters for five hours on horseback, and throughout the whole dis- tance, the carcase was ascertained to have touched the ground only once or twice!"
STRENGTH AND PROWESS.
Notwithstanding the above proofs of the great strength and power of the South African lion, Englishmen who have hunted in India, where, as said, this animal also abounds in certain districts, are inclined to think that in these respects he is inferior to the royal tiger, who has been known to smash a bullock's head by a single blow of his paw! That the strength of the lion should be inferior to that of the tiger can, however, hardly be the case, since their relative size is, I take it, much the same, and the structure of the skeleton (however different
