Then something still more wonderful happened. As the little girl was petting the cub, the lioness also began to lick the cub; then the lioness's tongue passed over the cub's body and came to the child's hand--and _the lioness began to lick the child's hand as if the child were her own_. Remember that this was a wild lioness, and untamed. Nobody had ever dared before even to come within her reach. Then the lady turned a little, and brought the other girl to the bars of the cage--and she too petted the cubs. Lastly, the lady put the girls down, and passed her own hand through the bars. She too petted the cubs, then finally she stroked the lioness herself. And that was like a kind of handshake as a good-bye. They parted friends--like two mothers who had met by chance on the roadside, and each had admired the children of the other. CHAPTER XIII The Leopard The _leopard_ is another animal of the Cat Tribe. You may know him at once by the _spots_ on his body; and of course the female leopard also has the spots. These spots are usually black in color, or sometimes very dark brown. But the color of the body, or "ground color" as it is called, is different among the several kinds of leopards. For, I must tell you, the leopard lives in so many countries that he varies in size and in ground color in different countries. He is found in almost all parts of Africa. In Asia he lives mostly in the hot countries in the south; but a special kind of leopard, called the snow leopard, is found in the cold countries in the north of Asia. On the American continent there is also a kind of leopard, called the jaguar. Now I shall describe in detail all the qualities of these different kinds of leopards. First, as leopards are felines, they have the fangs, the tongue, the claws, and the paws of the Cat Tribe, which I have already described to you. _The Leopard's Ground Color and Spots_ The ground color of the leopard's skin is usually yellow, but the shade of yellow varies in different leopards; sometimes it is a bright yellow, sometimes a brownish yellow. There are leopards whose skin is even darker than that,--some actually black. "But why do different kinds of leopards have different ground colors?" you may ask. Because they live on different kinds of soil and amidst different kinds of vegetation. You will remember what I have already told you: that _the color of an animal's body is very often the same as the color of the place where he lives_. Then the animal's prey or enemy is not able to distinguish him from his surroundings. So the animal finds it easier to catch the prey, or to escape from the enemy. And, because the color of the soil and vegetation in different countries varies from yellow to brown, the color of the leopard's body also varies in that manner, at least as a rule.