each other for hours. You know what a dreadful noise cats can make when they quarrel on the back fence. Lions act the same way, only worse, and they can be heard miles and miles.
Ostriches must admire the lion's roar, for they seem to try to imitate it. African travellers say they do it very well, too. Hunters can be sure of one thing. A roar at night means a lion; a roar in the daytime an ostrich.
Did you ever see a cat miss catching a mouse? She looks ashamed of herself. She peeps around to see if any one noticed her failure, and slinks away as if she wanted to forget it. Lions do the same. And they do not attack elephants and other big, thick skinned, tusked animals that fight back. Nor do they attack men, unless they are wounded or driven into a corner, or sometimes when the man is asleep and helpless and the lion very hungry. Some African travellers say that if a man meets a lion, all he has to do is to stand still and look him square in the eyes and Mr. Lion will back away, then turn tail and run. I wouldn't like to put that to the test, would you? But a lion is used to seeing animals run from him in fear. It might puzzle him to see a man stand still and stare at him. Wild animals are a good deal like human beings in that. They are afraid of what they don't understand.
Travellers say the lion isn't nearly as brave as the tiger, nor as noble as he looks. He slinks along through tall grass, or behind bushes with his head hanging below his shoulders. He never fights any animal that can defend itself unless he is forced to do so. The only time he shows great courage is in defending his mate and cubs, and then the lioness is fiercer than the lion. In captivity, of course, he is savage. He thinks of himself as in a trap, very likely, and that every man who comes near him wants to kill him. That makes him very dangerous.
How do you suppose this big, bearded wild cat is ever tamed so far that he lets his trainer use him for a pillow, drive him to a cart, play see-saw with him, wrestle with him, and jump through a hoop at a word of command?
The training of a lion is simple. He has to be made to understand two things. One is that his trainer is his friend and means to use him well. The other is that the man is master. The trainer begins by going up near the bars, talking to the lion kindly, and throwing him some meat. It isn't long before the lion learns to know and to watch for the man who feeds him. Next the trainer,
