Every wild beast show almost has its tame Lion, with which the keeper
takes the greatest liberties; liberties which the beast will suffer,
generally speaking, from none but him. Major Smith relates that he
had seen the keeper of a Lioness stand upon the beast, drag her round
the cage by her tail, open her jaws, and thrust his head between her
teeth. Another keeper, at New York, had provided himself with a fur cap,
the novelty of which attracted the notice of the Lion, which, making
a sudden grapple, tore the cap off his head as he passed the cage;
but, perceiving that the keeper was the person whose head he had thus
uncovered, he immediately laid the cap down. Wombwell, in his menagerie,
had a fine Lion, Nero, that allowed _strangers_ to enter his den, and
even put their heads within his jaws. This tameness is not, however, to
be trusted, since the natural ferocity of some Lions is never safely
subdued. Lions which have been sometimes familiar, have, on other
occasions, been known to kill their keepers, and dart at those who have
incautiously approached too near their cage. All these exhibitions have
been entirely eclipsed by the feats of Van Amburgh, in his exercise of
complete control over Lions. The melancholy fate of "the Lion Queen,"
however, tells of the fatal result of her confidence. The Lion-killing
feats of Captain Gordon Cumming had a more legitimate object in view--to
render us more familiar with the zoological character of the Lion.
Colonization has scarcely yet extirpated the Lion in Algeria, where the
French colonists make fine sport of "the King of the Beasts." M. Jules
Gerard, a Nimroud in his way, has been noted for his Lion-killing feats.
We read of his tracking a large old Lion in the Smauls country, one
hundred leagues in ten days, without catching a glimpse of anything but
his foot-prints. At length, accompanied by a native of the country and a
spahi, Gerard took up his quarters at the foot of a tree upon the path
which the old Lion had taken. It was moonlight, and Gerard made out two
Lions sitting about one hundred paces off, and exactly in the shadow of
the tree. The Arab lay snoring ten paces off, in the full light of the
moon, and had, doubtless, attracted the attention of the Lions. Gerard
expressly forbade the spahi to wake the Arab. Our Lion-hunter then got
up the hill to reconnoitre; the boldest of the Lions came up to within
ten paces of Gerard, and fifteen of the Arab: the Lion's eye was fixed
on the latter, and the second Lion placed himself on a level with, and
four or five paces from, the first. They proved to be both full-grown
Lionesses. Gerard took aim at the first as she came rolling and roaring
down to the foot of the tree. The Arab was scarcely awakened, when a
second ball stretched the Lioness dead upon the spot. Gerard then looked
out for the second Lioness, who was standing up within fifteen paces,
looking around her. He fired, and she fell down roaring, and disappeared
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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