species of prelude, and immediately afterwards it is repeated, but this time it is much louder and more protracted; the jaws of the animal being still closed, or the mouth but slightly opened. The third and fourth outbursts are given to the air through the fully extended jaws, and with the whole force of the lungs. To listen to this roar is terrible for those who happen to be crossing the monarch's path, or to be marching through the lonely forest. At length, after two or three more utterances of this kind, the animal ends, as he commenced, with less vigorous notes.

The distance to which I have been able to trace the progress of a lion by his roar, when there has been no contrary wind, and no mountain nor other obstacle to intercept the sound, is two or three leagues; but when he roars about a league off, one who is unaccustomed to the sound would believe him to be close at hand.

A curious circumstance which I have noticed, is that when the lion is accompanied by his mate they always roar alternately; that is to say the lioness commences, and the lion answers her, each continuing in its turn to utter its note, but the tones never being mingled. It has afforded me some satisfaction to find that my hero possesses a musical quality, which has never been observed in any other quadruped, so far as I am aware; and I am quite content to leave it to men of science to discover the cause, should they deem the matter deserving of their attention.

But to return to our hungry lion, whom we left descending from his mountain lair to the plain on which the encampments are pitched. By the term "encampment "* the Arabs and natives of Barbary designate an assemblage of tents ranged in a circle, and in close proximity with one another, except in one part, which serves as a passage to and from the plain. In the centre of this circle the herds are penned; and the external enclosure which surrounds and serves as a protection to the tents, consists of a rude hedge from six to twelve feet in height. The aperture or passage referred to is kept open during the day, but is closed at night.

When the Arabs hear the lion begin to roar in the distance they are at once on the qui vive. Heaps of wood are piled up before each tent and kindled, so that when the lion arrives near the encampment he may be visible to all, and that the owner of each tent may be able to throw a lighted brand at his head, and drive him forward to his neighbour's tent.

But the king of beasts is so much accustomed to these fires and to the cries of men, women and children, joined with the

"Douar."

yells of dogs, that he completely understands their meaning, and regards them with perfect indifference. Like an experienced hunter when he arrives before a hedge, all he does is to take the measure of its height with his eye, and then with a bound as quick as lightning he clears it, and alights in the encamp

ment.

Then follows a scene of unutterable terror and confusion. Men, women, and children rush pell-mell into their frail dwellings. The dogs are silent in an instant and seek refuge on the tops of the tents; with desperate struggles the horses break their tethers, and all the large cattle, forcing a gap in the hedge which encloses the encampment, scamper across the plain. The poor sheep, too much terrified to flee, are huddled together in a heap and bleat most lamentably, as though pleading for mercy. But the lion has left his generosity in the mountains, and at this juncture he experiences only his carnivorous instincts. These prompt him to take possession of one of the poor sheep, unless on this particular occasion he prefer to regale himself with an ox or a horse; in which case he pursues the cattle into the plain and commits fearful havoc amongst them.

For, a single victim on one night is not sufficient to satisfy this long-maned gourmand. He needs an ox for his dinner, partaking only of the prime portions, and afterwards the blood of five or six more serves to quench his thirst. Thus far, we have no right to object to the lion's proceedings. We drink claret, beer, and champagne; he prefers the warm blood of his victims-every one has tastes given to him in accordance with his nature. But the really objectionable part of his proceeding is, that he does not return to devour the animals he has slain, but goes elsewhere and massacres new victims. This need of fresh-killed meat occasions enormous losses to the Arabs, for their religion forbids them to feed on animals which have not been killed by themselves, pronouncing, in so doing, the sacramental words "bessem Allah" (in the name of God).

This is the mode of procedure with the grey and fawncoloured lion when it seeks its meal alone; if accompanied by his mate, the latter remains outside of the encampment, and her lord, clearing the enclosure, manoeuvres in such a way as to drive a portion of the cattle to the locality where she is stationed. Madame selects her victim, slaughters it adroitly, and at once sets about her meal, never permitting her spouse to partake of her repast. Neither does he attempt to touch one of the slaughtered animals which lie around, but looks on patiently until his spouse has finished her meal: his behaviour, let me add, serving as an example worthy of imitation by all married men. I have even noticed, that when he approached

his mate, apparently with a view to inquire whether her food was palatable, she would respond to this delicate attention on his part by demonstrations of anger, without at all, however, disturbing his serenity.

Put the excellent domestic qualities of the wedded lion do not end here. When he has attained the felicity of being the parent of two or three young ones (the average number of young in the family of a pair), he is charged, during the daytime, with watching over the safety of all, and at night it is he who sets out to the distant plains in pursuit of prey, to furnish sustenance to the mother and her young cubs.

In the performance of this duty, the lion has recourse to an expedient well worthy of the consideration of scientific men, and calculated to puzzle those who disbelieve in the magnetic power of animals. As the lair inhabited by the lioness and her young is always at a considerable distance from the Arab encampments, it would be a difficult task for the lion to carry, or even to drag, an ox or a horse so far. To avoid this labour, he brings home a living animal. Yes, reader, incredible as it may appear, the lion possesses the power of compelling a bull to leave the herd, and can force it to precede him, in whatever direction he pleases, for a whole night, thus leading him into the most inaccessible mountains.

Let me relate a circumstance connected with this power possessed by the lion, of which I was myself an eye-witness, my rifle having on that occasion solved the strange problem:In the month of May, 1846, an expedition set out from the camp at Guelma towards the frontiers of Tunis, for the purpose of chastising a rebellious tribe of Arabs.* At seven in the morning of the second day of our march we arrived at the banks of a river called El Meleh Salée, which flows past the foot of a bare precipitous mountain. At this place we halted, and Captain (now General) de Tourville ordered the cavalry to remain until the infantry and baggage had passed over the hill. We had been there about an hour, when we saw a horseman gallop back to us at the top of his speed. This horseman was a spahi, who formed part of the escort, and having reached the leader of the cavalry, we saw him address him with great animation and many violent gestures, which led us to believe that the vanguard had been, or was about to be attacked. Presently, however, I heard my own name frequently repeated, as though some one was wanted on a pressing service. I has

*M. Gérard was then, and is still, an officer in the French army. His early life, and lion-hunting adventures are described in his work, already referred to, "Le Tueur des Lions." A few lines concerning him will be found at the end of this paper.-ED.

tened to join our commandant, and this is what I learned from the Arab-his statement being received with the utmost incredulity by those who stood around:

At the moment when the head of the column had reached the summit of the hill, the vanguard perceived a bull approach across the corn-fields, and behind it, only a few paces distant, was an enormous lion which followed its footsteps. The soldiers at once set up a great cry, the drums were beat, and the clarions sounded. This noise arrested the animals for a moment, and then they proceeded onwards, in the direction of the troops. As they were not above a hundred paces distant the men prepared for a volley, when the commander and officers gave orders not to fire, but to halt.

The bull and lion crossed the path on which the troops were about to march, within pistol-shot; the lion then lay down to survey this spectacle which was so new to him, and the bull commenced grazing close by his side.

It was at this juncture that the spahi was despatched to fetch me; and it is hardly necessary to say that, notwithstanding the distance and the difficulty of the road, I was not long in reaching the scene of the strange apparition. The lion was, however, no longer there, and I had to follow his track. On arriving at a little hillock I saw him on the slope of a mountain opposite, still preceded by his victim. Having heard the gallop of my horse and that of the spahi who accompanied me, the lion had stopped, and was watching our approach.

The bull had followed his example. When I had arrived at about a hundred paces from him I dismounted and walked towards him, preparing my rifle. The lion politely advanced to meet me, and when we were distant from one another about twenty-five or thirty paces I stopped, and fired my first ball, which turned him on his back. He, however, rose instantaneously, and with furious roars bounded towards me. More fortunately or skilfully aimed, my second shot stopped his infuriated career in time, and brought him to the ground.

As for the bull, he was led to the bivouac the next day, and I ascertained from the Arabs of the district in which we were, that he belonged to an encampment situated at least twelve miles distant from the locality in which we had encountered him; and that each night of the previous month had been marked by an abduction of the kind, the victims serving as food for a lioness and her cubs which inhabited a neighbouring lair.

I confess that when I heard this news, I regretted the mischief which I had unconsciously occasioned. My readers will doubtless consider the care and affection manifested by the lion towards his mate and young ones as laudable as I do; and

as to the question of magnetic influence, I can only explain it on the ground of extreme terror; for there are many examples cited of Arabs thus magnetized and led away by the lion, in the presence of other persons who had sufficient presence of mind not to succumb to his influence.*

The variety of lion to which I have been referring is, in every other respect, a pattern of domestic virtue, which is more than can be said of his mate; but as I have now almost reached the limits of the space allotted to me I must leave them to settle their differences, and conclude this brief and imperfect account of the habits of the king of beasts with a few remarks upon the last variety, the black lion, which is the finest and most formidable of the species.

This animal is not so common as the fawn-coloured or the grey one. Like the two latter, it takes six or eight years to arrive at its full growth, and its life is of fifty or sixty years' duration. With somewhat shorter legs, it is broader and more thickset than they are. The power of its jaws, chest, loins, and paws is so great, that it can clear an enclosure eight or ten feet high with a horse three years old between its teeth. I have myself witnessed this feat on more than one occasion. His habits pretty much resemble those of the two last-named varieties up to the age of twenty or thirty years, but then he becomes a man-eater, and causes terrible ravages on the frontiers of Tunis and Morocco, where he is the most frequently met with. The courage of this lion is really grand. It matters little to him by what numbers he is attacked, and whether it be by day or by night, he never flinches. I have seen one of these black lions charge into the midst of 300 Arab horsemen on an open plain, and drive them back almost to their encampment; the boldest of them with their horses remained prostrate along his path. I have sometimes found the grey or fawn

* It is not our intention to enter upon the discussion of the subject of the fascination exercised by animals over their prey; but we may mention that there are many instances on record of a somewhat similar power being possessed by other animals. An anonymous writer, in the "Leisure Hour" (Nov. 1862), gives some examples of it in the stoat: he watched a rabbit trying to escape from the fascinating power of a stoat, around which it circulated, as if spell-bound, "continually narrowing the circle in which it was running, whilst the stoat seemed to be watching for it to come near enough to spring at." The narrator shot the stoat, and the rabbit then escaped. If, in our author's case, the bull had made an effort to escape when the course of the lion was arrested, it would have been easy to explain the fascination on the same ground as in the case of the stoat and rabbit. We would also draw attention to the remarks on this subject in the review of Hartwig's "Tropical World" in our present number.