CHAPTER II.
THE CAT FAMILY—THE LION.
[THE LION]—Its Geographical Distribution at the Present Day and in Ancient Times—Its Haunts—Varieties of the Lion—Distinction between the Lion and other Cats—Its Courage, Speed, and Strength—Its Roar—Its Supposed Magnanimity—Its Habits—Man-eating—Occasional resort to Vegetable Diet—Love-making—The Lion-cubs and their Education—Old Age—Breeding in Captivity—Lion Hunting.
THE LION.[7]
THE “King of Beasts” must, of course, be placed at the head of our list of beasts of prey, for although he is excelled in size and ferocity by the Tiger, in elegance of form by the Leopard and Jaguar, and in beauty of colouring by most of the great Cats, yet it would be useless, even if it were advisable, to depose him from the throne he has, by the universal consent of mankind, so long occupied. And, truly, who would wish to uncrown him? He is anything but an amiable beast—cruel and cowardly, greedy, treacherous, noisy, and self-asserting, never forgetful of the “divine right of kings” to prey upon their subjects; but still he is quite on a level, in the matters of morality and fitness to reign, with a very large proportion of his brother sovereigns of the genus Homo, with whom he well deserves a place in that limbo where, according to the mildly-spiteful poet of Olney, dwell “all that ever reigned” of the kings of men.
The Lion is entirely confined to the Old World, where it ranges through Africa from Barbary to Cape Colony, and extends into the south-west corner of Asia, where its range just overlaps that of the Tiger. Except in this “debateable land” the two monarchs keep clear of one another, the Lion keeping court over Africa and South-west Asia, and the Tiger ruling in Southern and Eastern Asia, the most important pretender in either kingdom being the Leopard.
With respect to the subject of distribution of the Lion in ancient times, we will quote from a late able writer. “That Lions were once found in Europe there can be no doubt. Thus it is recorded by Herodotus that the baggage camels of the army of Xerxes were attacked by Lions in the country of the Pæonians and Crestonœi, on their march from Acanthus (near the peninsula of Mount Athos) to Therme, afterwards Thessalonica (now Salonika). The camels alone, it is stated, were attacked, other beasts remaining untouched as well as men. The same historian also observes that the limits in Europe within which Lions were then found were the Nessus or Nestus, a Thracian river running to Abdera, and the Achelous, which waters Acarnania. Aristotle mentions Europe as abundant in Lions, and especially in that part which is between the Achelous and Nessus, apparently copying the statement of Herodotus. Pliny does the same, and adds that the Lions of Europe are stronger than those of Africa and Syria. Pausanias copies the same story as to the attack of the Lions on the Camels of Xerxes; and he states, moreover, that Lions often descended into the plains at the foot of Olympus, which separates Macedonia from Thessaly, and that Polydamas, a celebrated athlete, a contemporary of Darius Nothus, slew one of them, although he was unarmed. The passage in Oppian, which some have considered as indicating the existence of Lions up to the banks of the Danube, fails, as an authority, for placing the Lion in that locality, because, as Cuvier observes, the context shows plainly that the name of Ista is there applied to an Armenian river, either by an error of the author or of the transcribers.”
Nor is Europe the only part of the world from which the form of the Lion has disappeared. Lions are no longer to be found in Egypt, Palestine, or Syria, where they were once evidently far from uncommon. The frequent allusion to the Lion in Scripture, and the various Hebrew terms there used to distinguish the different ages and the sex of the animal, prove a familiarity with the habits of the race. Even in Asia generally, with the exception of some countries between India and Persia, and some districts of Arabia, these magnificent beasts have become comparatively rare; and this is not to be wondered at. To say nothing of the immense draughts on the race for the Roman arena—and they were not inconsiderable, for there were a thousand Lions killed at Rome in the space of forty years—population and civilisation have gradually driven them within narrower limits, and their destruction has been rapidly worked in modern times since firearms have been used against them instead of the bow and the spear. The African Lion is annually retiring before the persecution of man farther and farther from the Cape. Mr. Bennett[8] says of the Lion: “His true country is Africa, in the vast and untrodden wilds of which, from the immense deserts of the North to the trackless forests of the South, he reigns supreme and uncontrolled.” In the sandy deserts of Arabia, in some of the wild districts of Persia, and in the jungles of Guzerat, in India, he maintains a precarious footing; but from the classic soil of Greece, as well as from the whole of Asia Minor, both of which were once exposed to his ravages, he has been utterly dislodged and extirpated.
The fearful custom, so common afterwards among the Romans, of having many encaged Lions, “fierce with dark keeping,” to use Bacon’s expression, for judicial as well as sporting purposes, was evidently an old custom in the East; for we learn from the book of Daniel that the kings of Babylon kept a “den of Lions” into which offenders were thrown alive. Judging, however, from the Biblical narrative, the Chaldeans had a far less revolting manner of killing criminals than the Romans, for they seem to have used the Lions simply as executioners; to have cast in the victim, and then to have fastened up the entrance of the den, drawing a decent veil on the horrible scene taking place within. They did not, like the Romans, curry favour with the masses by making the death of their victims into a spectacle, at which all classes had their love of excitement gratified by the sight of men and women torn and mangled and devoured by raging beasts, to the accompaniment of small talk and flirtation.
As to the former occurrence of the Lion in places where it is now absent, we may instance its evident commonness in Palestine. One of the earliest Lion stories occurs in the history of the Hebrew Hercules, who, when travelling with his father and mother to Timnath, “came to the vineyards of Timnath: and, behold, a young Lion roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done.”[9]
Every one will remember David’s account of his encounter with the tawny savage in the Syrian pasture lands. “And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a Lion, and a Bear, and took a Lamb out of the flock: and I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the Lion and the Bear.”[10]