THE LION'S RIDE.
The lion is the desert's king; through his domain so wide
Right swiftly and right royally this night he means to ride.
By the sedgy brink, where the wild herds drink, close couches the grim old
chief;
The trembling sycamore above whispers with every leaf.
At evening on the Table Mount, when ye can see no more
The changeful play of signals gay; when the gloom is speckled o'er
With kraal fires; when the Caffre wends home through the lone karroo;
When the boshbok in the thicket sleeps, and by the stream the gnu;
Then bend your gaze across the waste; what see ye! The giraffe,
Majestic, stalks towards the lagoon, the turbid lymph to quaff;
With outstretched neck and tongue, adust he kneels him down to cool
His hot thirst with a welcome draught from the foul and brackish pool.
A rustling sound, a roar, a bound,—the lion sits astride
Upon his giant courser's back. Did ever king so ride?
Had ever king a steed so rare, caparisons of state
To match the dappled skin whereon that rider sits elate?
In the muscles of the neck his teeth are plunged with ravenous greed;
His tawny mane is tossing round the withers of the steed
Up leaping with a hollow yell of anguish and surprise,
Away, away, in wild dismay, the camel-leopard flies.
His feet have wings; see how he springs across the moonlit plain!
As from the sockets they would burst, his glaring eyeballs strain;
In thick black streams of purling blood, full fast his life is fleeting;
The stillness of the desert hears his heart's tumultuous beating.
Like the cloud that, through the wilderness, the path of Israel traced,—
Like an airy phantom, dull and worn, a spirit of the waste,—
From the sandy sea uprising, as the waterspout from ocean,
A whirling cloud of dust keeps pace with the courser's fiery motion.
Croaking companion of their flight, the vulture whirs on high;
Below, the terror of the fold, the panther fierce and sly,
And hyenas foul, round graves that prowl, join in the horrid race;
By the footprints wet with gore and sweat, their monarch's course they trace.
They see him on his living throne, and quake with fear the while;
With claws of steel he tears piecemeal his cushion's painted pile.
On! on! no pause, no rest, giraffe, while life and strength remain!
The steed by such a rider backed may madly plunge in vain.
Reeling upon the desert's verge, he falls, and breathes his last;
The courser, stained with dust and foam, is the rider's full repast.
O'er Madagascar, eastward far, a faint flush is descried;—
Thus nightly, o'er his broad domain, the king of beasts doth ride.
—From the German.
The lion is said to have a special liking for the flesh of the Hottentots, and with great obstinacy will follow one of these unfortunate savages.
It commits so much devastation among the herds of antelopes that roam over the plains that hunters in North and South Africa pursue him and kill him wherever he appears.
Dr. Livingstone states that the Bushmen take advantage of the torpidity of the lion after a full meal to surprise him in his slumbers. Their mode of attack differs widely from that of the fierce Arabs of North Africa. While one native discharges a poisoned arrow from a distance, his companion dexterously throws his skin coat over the animal's head. In its surprise and amazement the lion loses its presence of mind and bounds away in a panic, terrified and confused.
The poison used in the arrows of the Bushmen is obtained from a caterpillar about half an inch long. It is a very active poison, causing intense agony to any one wounded by one of these arrows. The effect on the lion is equally distressing. He can be heard moaning in distress, and finally becomes furious, biting the trees and ground in his rage and torment.
The African lion differs somewhat from the Asiatic. The latter has a more compressed form and a shorter mane; sometimes the mane is entirely wanting. Its tail, however, has a much larger tuft of hair at the end.
Africa may be said to be the chief home of the lion. It is the part of the world where his peculiar strength and beauty appear in all their perfection.