Lioness

“ The lioness having had a long start of me, we went over a considerable extent of ground before I came up with her. She was a large, full-grown beast, and the bare and level nature of the plain added to her imposing appearance. Finding that I gained upon her, she reduced her pace from a canter to a trot, carrying her tail stuck out behind her, and slewed a little to one side. I shouted loudly to her to halt, as I wished to speak with her, upon which she suddenly pulled up, and sat on her haunches like a dog, with her back toward me, not even deigning to look round. ”

“ Early one morning one of our herdsmen came running up to us in great fright, and announced that a lion was devouring a lioness! We thought at first that the man must be mistaken; but his story was perfectly true, and only her skull, the larger bones, and the skin were left. ”

“ My photographs show how a mating lion and lioness fall on their victim—from different sides; and how three lionesses may be seen quenching their thirst at midnight, all together. With good luck some one may manage to photograph a troop of a dozen or twenty lions hunting their prey—that would be a fine achievement. Or he might secure a wonderful group of bull-elephants on their way down to a drinking-place. The possibilities are immense.
Who has ever seen a herd of giraffes bending down in their grotesque impossible attitudes to quench their thirst? ”

“ When a lion and lioness leave their home in the forest to take a ramble, the lioness always goes first and leads the way; and when she stops in her walk, the old lion stops too, till she is ready to go on. Ask your mother if she don’t think that’s about the proper way to do things? When they come to an Arab’s tent where they mean to get their supper, the lioness lies down a short distance off, while the old lion bounds in and snatches whatever he thinks madam will like best, and then lays it down at her feet. ”

“ But the two quadrupeds continued, ever after, to live together on the most friendly and affectionate terms; constantly inhabiting the same cage, and habitually partaking of the same messes of provision. The Lioness, though now grown large, having never seen any other mother, continued through life to shew marks of daughterly obedience, and the bitch, of maternal regard. ”

“ The object of the lion was clearly more the beast than the man; for, upon finding himself thus suddenly baffled, he stopped short, and with a savage look at us, and an angry growl, bounded out of sight as quick as thought; and by the time I returned to the wagons, the lioness had thought fit to follow her lord's example. ”

“ Then, in a bush close at hand, a nightingale suddenly burst into bubbling song{110}—no lament, as the Greeks thought it, but the lyric passion of mating-time, when the stir of love goes through the world, and the lion seeks the lioness, and the Libyan hills re-echo to the roaring of his irresistible need; when the feathered and bright-eyed birds lie breast to breast in their swaying habitations; when the man seeks the woman, and cannot rest till he has found her. ”

“ The lioness is one of nature's true mothers. She watches her babies with jealous care, anticipating their wants, kissing away their childish troubles, teaching them good manners, settling their disputes and showering them with the mother love of her great big heart. Many human mothers could learn lessons worth while, lessons of patience, forbearance, gentleness and wisdom from the lioness. ”

“ The lioness would signify a mighty people, emerging from the desert of barbarism, and the wings that aided it in its flight would signify the arts and appliances of civilization, which enabled it to soar above the low and grovelling pursuits of savage life, while the nature and character of the lioness would express the moral and physical qualities of that people. ”

“ That they are thus found not infrequently may, indeed, be freely admitted; but, on the other hand, it is much commoner to come across a lioness and her cubs, an old lion with several lionesses and their young, a single lion or lioness, a couple of lions and lionesses, or, lastly, a small troop, which may be composed either solely of males or females, or of a mixture of the two sexes. ”

“ Next box to this you will find a lioness, about the same age as her mate, a fine specimen of African female, who seems very much attached to a dog that shares her cage with her in perfect harmony, at least so far as the lioness is concerned, for she does all she can to live at peace with the dog, yielding to his wishes in all particulars, giving up her meat whenever he takes a fancy to it, and getting out of his way whenever he wishes to walk about, although doggy does not seem to be a very amiable partner, and every now and then gives the lioness a bit of his mind by biting her in the ear. ”

“ Indeed of late nothing less than four or five lions bolting from cover altogether at a "hot corner," and being rolled over (on paper) like rabbits, will suit the modern appetites for large bags, and it is refreshing to meet with a lioness that could look an Englishman in the face without dying on the spot. ”

“ The fore feet and hind feet of the lioness are nearly the same size.”
“Pray go on,” said Susie.
“They came into full view, and in the dim light, as they stood chest on, they appeared as huge as the strange beasts of the Arabian tales. I aimed at the lioness which stood nearest to me and fired. Without a sound, like a bullock felled at one blow, she dropped. The lion gave vent to a sonorous roar. Hastily I slipped another cartridge in my rifle. ”

“ The lioness is a very pale fawn, almost cream colour, and the damask spots of cub-hood were still visible on her legs and feet when she was three years old. In temper she is as savage and ferocious as her partner is gentle. 73As far as points go she is almost perfect, with a long straight back, round black-tipped ears, short strong legs, square head, flat forehead, rounded, cushioned feet, and a chest like a bull-dog’s. ”

“ The lioness has no mane; is smaller, and more slender in her proportions than the male; she carries her head even with the line of her back, and wants the majestic courage of the lion, but she is more agile. Her temper is more irritable, and Mr. Gordon Cumming says:—"She is more dangerous before she has been a mother; yet every vestige of tameness or docility vanishes when she is a mother, and she is then in a constant state of excitement, getting into the most violent fury if any one should attempt to touch her cubs." ”

“ But none of these animals attracted me as much as the big lioness. She was always good-humored, though occasionally so lazy that she would not even open her eyes when I sat down on her shoulder. She would sometimes catch my foot in her paws as a kitten catches a ball, and try to make a plaything of it,—yet always without thrusting out her claws. ”

“ It cannot be doubted that the lighter and slenderer shape of the Lioness, and her consequently greater activity, tend in an especial manner to the formation of that more lively and sensitive character by which all her actions are so strongly marked: but there is another cause, no less powerful than these, which operates with peculiar force, in the vivid excitability of her maternal feelings, which she cherishes with an ardour almost unparalleled in the history of any other animal. ”

“ As soon as they saw me following them up, the lioness took covert in some long grass that almost concealed her when she lay down, but the lion continued to move steadily away. Accordingly I made for a point which would bring me about two hundred yards to the right of the lioness, and which would leave a deep natural hollow between us, so as to give me a better chance, in the event of a charge, of bowling her over as she came up the rise towards me. I could plainly make out her light-coloured form in the grass, and took careful aim and fired. ”

“ Change of habit cannot alter nature.
The Lioness.
A controversy prevailed among the beasts of the field, as to which of the animals deserved the most credit for producing the greatest number of whelps at a birth. They rushed clamorously into the presence of the Lioness, and demanded of her the settlement of the dispute. "And you," they said, "how many sons have you at a birth?" The Lioness laughed at them, and said: "Why! I have only one; but that one is altogether a thorough-bred Lion." ”

“ The lionesses see the performance many times in the course of a season, but they never lose interest in it and they do not remove their eyes from Selica from the time she enters the cage until she drives them out before her. So long as she is on her feet and agile enough to escape the swift stroke of a paw or the snapping jaws, she is safe; for a lioness would not jump at her from a pedestal ”

“ The next morning when the Lion Babies woke up there was no mother Lioness. They couldn’t imagine what had happened. They saw the big man always around their cage, feeding them, talking to them in soft, kind tones, but their lovely warm, soft, furry mother, where was she?
“The day went on and still she didn’t come! Oh, such miserable little Lion Babies as they were! The Keeper did all he could for them—but he couldn’t feed them anything to take away that queer feeling they had. ”

“ Fickle as the affections of a jungle-bred lioness, playful as a lioness can be and—dangerous and savage as the lioness when crossed. On that Channel a single hour of time may change the sea from the placidity of a lake to the ferocity of a tempest. ”

“ The man, being hungry, asked the woman to turn herself into a lioness and catch one of these horses, that they might eat of it; whereupon the woman set down her child, and taking off a sort of petticoat made of human skin became instantly transformed into a lioness, which rushed across the plain, struck down a wild horse and lapped its blood. ”

“ HE Lioness is much smaller than the Lion, and her form is more slender and graceful.
The home of the Lioness, in a wild state, is generally under some deep cover, and all around is watched with the greatest care. Woe to the intruder, whether man or beast, that unwarily comes near the Lioness in her den! ”

“ On the other hand, the lioness brings forth a numerous family, generally five or six at a birth, which should keep up the number of the race; in spite of this prolific nature, the lion having from time immemorial been an attraction to the mighty hunter, man has proved too much for him. ”

“ The mane is of a dark brown, or of a dusky color, and the tail nearly three feet long, with a bunch of hair at the tip.
The lioness, or female lion, is smaller in every way than the male and has no mane.
It is in the night-time that the lion goes out from his den to seek for food, and his color is so dark and his movements so silent, that his presence is not known even at the distance of a few yards. ”

“ It may be easily imagined, therefore, that a Lioness actuated by equal courage, and possessed of the terrible weapons given to her by her Creator, would be an animal almost too formidable for the conception of those who have not actually witnessed the scene of a Lioness defending her little ones. ”

“ A lioness in the Tower of London once formed such an attachment for a little dog which was kept with her in the den, that she would not eat till the dog was first satisfied. After the lioness had become a mother, it was thought advisable to take the animal away, for fear that her jealous fondness for her whelps might lead her to injure it. But while the keeper was cleaning the den, the dog, by some means, got into it, and approached the lioness with his wonted fondness. She was playing with her cubs ”

“ They rejoice Each with their kind, lion with lioness; So fitly them in pairs thou hast combined: Much less can bird with beast, or fish with fowl So well converse, nor with the ox the ape; ”

“ We were most of us laid down on our mats to sleep, when our watch came running in among us, being frighted with the sudden roaring of some lions just by them, which, it seems, they had not seen, the night being dark, till they were just upon them. There was, as it proved, an old lion and his whole family, for there was the lioness and three young lions, besides the old king, who was a monstrous great one. ”

“ But soon, as the lioness grows more restless, the master of the house rises to his feet, which is sensible. If a healthy, full-sized lioness were running about near me, and treading on my stomach occasionally, I should want to get up myself. ”

“ Instead of that bold, kingly look, that magnificent form and flowing mane, which they would have had, if the 129old lioness had brought them up according to her notions, their shapes become mean and poor, their manes thin, their look unhappy and broken-spirited, and their whole appearance very miserable. Ah, a wild lion is quite another affair, as you would soon find, could he but crunch your little heads between his jaws. ”

“ On the other hand, only one turned tail once the battle was on, and she proved to be a three quarters grown lioness, sick and out of condition.
It is of course indubitable that where lions have been much shot they become warier in the matter of keeping out of trouble. They retire to cover earlier in the morning, and they keep more than a perfunctory outlook for the casual human being. ”

“ The former is now the more common in the country; but the latter, which is the fiercer of the two, is the one ordinarily represented upon the sculptures. The lioness is nearly as much feared as the lion; when her young are attacked, or when she has lost them, she is perhaps even more terrible. Her roar is said to be deeper and far more imposing than of the male. ”

“ This is also the reason why so many curious varieties of animals are produced265 there, the males and females of various species coupling promiscuously with each other.1662 Hence arose the saying, which was common in Greece even, that “Africa is always producing something new.” The lion recognizes, by the peculiar odour of the pard, when the lioness has been unfaithful to him, and avenges himself with the greatest fury. Hence it is, that the female, when she has been guilty of a lapse, washes herself, or else follows the lion at a considerable distance. ”