he lives in desert, arid plains, lightly covered with shrubby vegetation, or interspersed with tracts of low brushwood; or, in India, he frequents the borders of rivers, and makes his lair in the jungles. The lion slumbers during the day in his retreat, and as night falls he prowls abroad in search of prey. He loves the nocturnal tempests of wind and rain so common in Southern Africa; his voice mingles with the thunder, and adds to the terror of the timid animals, on whom he then boldly advances. He usually, however, waits in ambush, or creeps insidiously towards his victim, which, with a bound and a rush, he dashes to the earth. In South Africa the lion is seldom seen, unless surprised asleep in his lair of thicket. Except in darkness, or during violent storms, which excite the fiercer carnivora, he is a timid animal, much less feared by the people than the angry and agile leopard. When encountered in the daytime, he stands a second or two gazing; then turns slowly round, and walks as slowly away for a dozen paces, looking over his shoulder; he then begins to trot, and when he thinks himself out of sight, bounds like a greyhound. If attacked, however, he will show fight, as the following experience, not likely to be often repeated, will testify :-"Being about thirty yards off the foe," says Dr. Livingstone, "I took a good aim at his body, through the bush, and fired both barrels into it. The men then called out, 'He is shot! he is shot!' others cried, 'He has been shot by another man, too; let us go to him!' I did not see any one else shoot at him; but I saw the lion's tail erected in anger behind the bush, and, turning to the people, said, 'Stop a little, till I load again!' When in the act of ramming down the bullets I heard a shout. Starting, and looking half-round, I saw the lion just in the act of springing upon me. I was upon a little height. He caught my shoulder as he sprang, and we both came to the ground below together. Growling horribly close to my ear, he shook me as a terrier dog does a rat. The shock produced a stupor similar to that which seems to be felt by a mouse after the first shake of the cat. It caused a sort of dreaminess in which there was no sense of pain or feeling of terror. It was like what patients. partially under the influence of chloroform describe, who see all the operation, but feel not the knife. This singular condition was not the result of any mental process. The shake annihilated fear, and allowed no sense of horror in looking round at the beast. This peculiar state is probably produced in all animals killed by the carnivora; and, if so, is a merciful provision by our beneficent Creator for lessening the pain of death. Turning round to relieve myself of the weight, as he had one paw on the back of my head, I saw his eyes directed to Mebalwe, who was trying to shoot him at the distance of fifteen yards. His gun, a flint one, missed fire in both barrels. The lion immediately left me, and, attacking Mebalwe, bit his thigh. Another man, whose life I had saved before, after he had been tossed by a buffalo, attempted to spear the lion while he was biting Mebalwe. He left Mebalwe and caught this man by the shoulder, but at that moment the bullets he had received had taken effect, and he fell down dead. The whole was the work of a few moments, and must have been his paroxysm of dying rage. Besides crunching the bone into splinters, he left eleven teeth wounds in the upper part of my arm." Dr. Livingstone further says:-"The same feeling which has induced the modern painter to caricature the lion, has led the sentimentalist to consider the lion's roar the most terrific of all earthly sounds. The silly ostrich makes a noise as loud, yet it never was feared by man. To talk of the majestic roar of the lion is mere majestic twaddle. Carnivora.-Literally, flesh-eating, the name given to that large class of animals that subsist on animal food more or less exclusively, such as the lion, tiger, cat, &c. QUESTIONS:-1. Why should not the lion be termed the lord of the forest? 2. Where does he usually live? 3. When does he hunt his prey? 4. What seasons are specially agreeable to him? 5. What is his usual way of hunting his prey? 6. What are the "carnivora"? 7. What is his ordinary character? 8. What animal do the natives of Africa dread more than the lion? 9. How does the animal act when encountered in the daytime? 10. Who was Dr. Livingstone? 11. Give an account of his encounter with a lion. 12. What effect had the shock upon him? 13. What does he suppose was the cause of this state? 14. What wise purpose may be seen in this? 15. What is chloroform? 16. What is its great use? LESSON II. The Waterfall and the Brier-Rose. ac'-cents, words. pu'-ny, small, insignificant. be-spat-tered,covered over with quaked, shook with fear. chant'-ed, sang. fi'-bres, roots. na'-tal spot, place where one is born. pre-sump'-tu-ous, bold, im pudent. ven'-tured, attempted, made bold to. wreath, a chaplet of flowers. "BEGONE, thou fond presumptuous elf," A fall of water swollen with snows That, all bespatter'd with his foam, "Dost thou presume my course to block! I'll hurl thee headlong with the rock To which thy fibres cling." The flood was tyrannous and strong, Nor did he utter groan or sigh, He ventured to reply. "Ah!" said the brier, "blame me not: Why should we dwell in strife? We who in this, our natal spot, Once lived a happy life! You stirr'd me on my rocky bed— What pleasure through my veins you spread! That did your cares repay. When spring came on with bud and bell Before you hang my wreath, to tell What more he said I cannot tell. The stream came thundering down the dell, I listened, nor aught else could hear: Those accents were his last. WORDSWORTH. |