There are many things said about animals that are not always true, for instance, that every animal can be charmed with music--if only we use the particular kind of music which that particular animal likes. No doubt, particular kinds of animal _have_ been charmed in that way for thousands of years; and even the most terrible kind of snake, called the cobra, is regularly charmed in India with a flute. You must have read of these serpent-charmers in storybooks, as they charm even _wild_ cobras in that way. So it is quite true that several kinds of animals can be charmed with particular kinds of _soft_ music, such as the music of the flute and the violin. I shall tell you all about that in my next book. But about taming leopards with perfumes--we are not sure that _all_ wild leopards can be tamed with beautiful perfumes. It is at least true that _some_ wild leopards have been tamed in that way. I shall now tell you a true story, to show you how that once happened. _The Leopard and the Lavender_ Once a wild leopard had been caught in a trap in the jungle. He was put into a cage and carried overland to a seaport. There the leopard in his cage was put on a ship to be taken to England. The cage was placed on the deck of the ship. The leopard was very wild and ferocious. If any of the passengers or crew came anywhere near the cage, he snarled with rage and leaped at the bars of the cage. He shook and bit the iron bars, as if he wanted to get out and attack the people. He was well fed all the time, but still nothing seemed to lessen his ferocity. Then, one day, a lady happened to take out her handkerchief. She was standing about three or four yards from the cage, and a fresh breeze was blowing from her direction toward the cage. Immediately a change came over the leopard. A minute before he had been snarling with rage at sight of her, and trying to get out to attack her. But as soon as she took out her handkerchief, the leopard ceased to snarl and to bite the bars. Instead, he tried to put his head through the bars, as if to get his _nose_ as near her as possible. Of course the lady did not understand that. She merely wondered why the leopard had changed his behavior so suddenly. She now noticed that the leopard was bending down, and scratching the floor of the cage near the front of the bars--just as a pet cat or dog will scratch the floor outside your door to be let in. The lady wondered still more, and came a little nearer to the cage. Immediately the leopard got up, and began pacing the cage in joy. The lady now stood about two yards away. Then the leopard put his paw through the bars and began to _snatch_ with it. The lady was a little frightened at first, but presently she noticed that the leopard was not snatching at _her_, but at the _handkerchief_, which was still in her hand. And the leopard was not snatching ferociously, but almost playfully, like a great big cat.