'77S- Aiia, yet it never can be confonant either with truth or pro- December. J J „ , , _ , . , r bability, that armies of lions ihould be found in thefe quarters of the globe, where only, according to the very probable pofi- tion of M . d e B u f f o n , they exift. So that when a later writer, the Abbé d e M a n e t , in his defcription o f the northern part of Africa, affirmsj that the fame kind of lion is like- wife found in America, we may fafely coniider this merely as a hafty affertion, which is not warranted either by the authority o f others or by his own experience : indeed, this author’s teftimony is much more to be credited when he informs us, that the “ Negroes in the northern parts of Africa, are ufed to catch lions in pits, but do not dare to eat any. o f the fleih, for fear left the other lions ihould be revenged on them.” In this particular, however, I have not found the Hottentots or inhabitants o f the fouthern parts o f Africa equally fuperftitious, as they told me, that they ate the fleih of lions, and looked upon it to be both good and wholefome. They likewife informed me, that the lions as well as hyænas, had been formerly much bolder than they are at prefent, as they ufed to feize them at night, and carry them off from their cottages : at the fame time they aflured me, that a lion that had once tailed human fleih would never after, i f he could help it, prey upon any other. They added, that for the fame reafon they were obliged to fix benches up in trees to fleep on ; fo that they could not fo readily be caught unawares by the lions, and might likewife the eafier defend themfelves when they were attacked by them* So that, in fad, they were obliged to acknowledge, that with the afliftance o f the Chriftians and their fire-arms, they m they are at prefent much lefsyexpofed to the ravages of this fierce animal • while, on the other hand, I could not V w V but agree ^ith„them, that the cokmifts. themfelves were a much greater fcourge to them than all the wild beafts of their country put together; a$ the flottentot nations,,fince the arrival o f the coloniils in this part o f , the world, haye found themfelves reduced to a. much narrower fpace in their pofieflions, and their numbers very much decreafed. In tliefe times, at leaft, the lion dogs not, willjpgly attack, any. .animal ppeply,j unleft . provoked, - or extremely hungry ;• in which latter cafe he is faid.to fear no danger, and to be repelled by no.refiftance. The methodm winch the lion takes his prey, is almoft always to fpring or throw himfelf. on it, with one, ya^> leap from the, place p f his concealment; yet, i f .he chapces to mifs his leap, he will not, as the Hottentots unanimoufly aflured me, follow his prey any. farther; but, as though he were alhamed, turning round towards, the place where he lay in ambuih, flowly, and ftep by ftep, aS it were, meafures the exaft length between the two. points, in order to find how much too ftjort of, o r beyo.nd the mark he had taken his leap. One of thefe animals, however, was once known to purfue an elk-antilope with the great eft eagernefs and ardour, without any one getting to fee the end of the chafe,;. It is Angular, that thè foxes in Europe, according to M. C o l l o n n ’s Hiß. Nouv. de rUnivers, Tom. IV. p. 20. when they have leaped iliort of their mark, and. their prey has got away from them, meafure the length of their leap, in the fame manner as the lion does. It
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