much like the
usual drawings of a lion, the nose being prolonged like a dog's; not
exactly such as our painters make it--though they might learn better at
the Zoological Gardens--their ideas of majesty being usually shown by
making their lions' faces like old women in nightcaps. When encountered
in the daytime, the lion stands a second or two, gazing, then turns
slowly round, and walks as slowly away for a dozen paces, looking over
his shoulder; then begins to trot, and, when he thinks himself out of
sight, bounds off like a greyhound. By day there is not, as a rule, the
smallest danger of lions which are not molested attacking man, nor
even on a clear moonlight night, except when they possess the breeding
storgh* (natural affection); this makes them brave almost any danger;
and if a man happens to cross to the windward of them, both lion and
lioness will rush at him, in the manner of a bitch with whelps. This
does not often happen, as I only became aware of two or three instances
of it. In one case a man, passing where the wind blew from him to the
animals, was bitten before he could climb a tree; and occasionally a man
on horseback has been caught by the leg under the same circumstances. So
general, however, is the sense of security on moonlight nights, that we
seldom tied up our oxen, but let them lie loose by the wagons; while on
a dark, rainy night, if a lion is in the neighborhood, he is almost sure
to venture to kill an ox. His approach is always stealthy, except when
wounded; and any appearance of a trap is enough to cause him to refrain
from making the last spring. 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.

* (Greek) sigma-tau-omicron-rho-gamma-eta.

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 STALKI