95 not give much time to it; for of all cagedir creatures, one would that a bird the least able to bear its lot patiently and of all, birds, an eagle-of which there are several heres Not that we come here to lament over the condition of the objects we meet with and for my own part, I doubt whether any of them were ever better off than they are at present. At all events, wed will leave our friend P to institute a comparative inquiry of this kind, and to concoct ans eloquent and pathetic paper on the subject, b for the New Monthly Magazine, in which he will doubtless determine the exact effects producible on the animal mind by a transfer of the body to which it is appended, from native forests, boundless deserts, and trackless skies, to a wooden cage three feet square. In the mean time, we will proceed in our examination, admitting, however, by the way, that there is something bordering on the melancholy in the aPo pearance of an eagle y under the condition in which we find him here: that, as some one has compared a poet under certain circumstances (I forget what) to "a sick eagle gazing at t the sky, so we can scarcely ib refrain from returning the compliment, and comparing the great eagle that sits moping here, to a poet confined in the King's Bench, without either pens, ink, or paper! This comparison, however, will be applicable only when the present Insolvent Act is repealed; so that here hergie is another cogent reason for the said repeal for which, as in bound, your petitioners will never pray, &c. 99nie asdusЯ won bus This room contains a great variety of of other rbirds among which are Ils some beautiful Belearic cranes, w with crests on their heads in the form Shim to elsUIST of crowns; two extremely curious eagles of a description not com bela to and some birds that you will rena avoltara one to see found in books of natural history; member to have heard of at school, Reuben. nigroque simillima Cygno." Night, the this part of the show; so we will just glance at a few of the other objects in this room, and then pay our respects to Bob, and the great boa constrictor, in the next. Here is the bison, a relative of whom, under the feigned name of the bonassus, lately enlivened every dead wall in the metropolis and its environs, and the whole fraternity of whom we consequently abhor almost as much as we do "Warren's Blacking for the same reasona Next door neighbour to the above is a pretty animal that they dignify with the name of of a wild horse; but which you, Reuben, would desire nothing better than to mount, on an open common, without saddle or bridle; and I'd back you to keep on him at least as well as Mazeppa did by the aid of all his cords. It has the head and neck of a zebra, but in other respects would make a clever hackney for any timid elderly gentleman in want of such a horse." 19891 Wetesed The only other animals we will stay to notice in this room are two beautiful little creatures of the antelope tribe, with spiral horns, and eyes like Mahomet's hours; and another of and another of the same species, the lama, used in the Peruvian mines. 1. This room contains a vast variety of the smaller species of foreign birds, and a few small animals-such as monkies, &c. But what we have come to see is shut up in that great deal press, the front of which lets down with hinges, and leaves the whole interior, with its contents, exposed to the view and even en the touch of the spectators-for it is not found necessary to interpose any safeguard before this most terrificlooking of all the animal tribe. And it is lucky that this is the case; for Bob, who has the care of this animal, has made such good use of the buonamano's he has received in the course of the day, that he is not in the best condition to protect us in case of danger. But Bob has too strong a sense of natural justice to forego what has, time out of mind, been his custom always of an afternoon,"-merely to accommodate the idle habits of other people. If you visit him and his charge at a proper hour, you'll find him in a proper condition to do the honours of the visit; and this is all that can in reason be required of him. But I believe I need not have made this apology for him. I've heard it whispered in your village, Reuben, that the Vicar's steed, knows as well, if not better, when his reverend burthen is tipsy, than the said burthen does itself; and I rather think it is the same with Bob and the Boa. You see he has by this time let down the side of the serpent's house, and taken off the blankets which covered him; and there the monster lies, black, twisted, and self-involved, like one of your late writing-master's flourishes.. I question whether any one ever looked at this extraordinary creature for the first time, without feeling a cold shudder creep through every part. It is a sort of object that (for what reason I know not) we never form an adequate conception of beforehand. The one before us is fourteen feet long, and is entirely covered with a brilliant coating of black, picked out with a sort of whitish yellow; the whole varnished like the face of a picture. The head and neck are much smaller, and of lighter colour, than the rest of the body-the largest part of which is perhaps a foot and a half in circumference; and the tail diminishes in size almost to a point. But perhaps the most striking part of this singular creature, and the sight of which affects the spectator in the most extraordinary manner, is the tongue; which, at the approach or touch of any person, it puts out of its mouth (without appearing to open the latter) and moves about with a quick flickering motion, accompanied by a low hissing noise. The part that it puts out of the mouth is about an inch and a half long, and divided into two about half way down from the extremity-each portion being about the thickness of a small quill. Bob (whose word, by the by, I would not take for so much as Hamlet offered to take the Ghost's) told me, the last time I saw this creature, that it had the day before eaten three live fowls, "feathers and all," and ten pounds of beef. Though I don't know why I should suspect him of exaggeration in this, when he adds that it never eats more than once in a fortnight, and sometimes not for months together. It is perfectly harmless and quiet--never attempting to move out of the case or cupboard in which it lies; and the only indication it ever gives of the kind and degree of power that it possesses is when you place your hand between the side of its box and any part of it that happens to be lying there-in which case it presses against your hand, and if you were not prepared to slip it away immediately, would crush it. But we are spending more of our time here than we intended, or can afford; so taking leave of Bob and his charge, without waiting for his "true and particular account" of its "life, character, and behaviour," we will at once descend to the great room which we came principally to see. This room does really contain a magnificent collection of objectssuch a one as probably was never before collected together in modern times. The whole of the hither end is occupied by the huge bulk of the elephant, which reaches from side to side, and from the floor to the ceiling, and is divided from the rest of the room by solid beams of wood banded with iron, which cross each other in the form of a grating. At the opposite end is the great lion, gazing around him with the air of an imprisoned emperor, and swishing his tail about, "as a gentleman swishes his cane." All along the right-hand side of the room are dens containing seven or eight other lions, male and female, of different ages and species, besides tigers, leopards, panthers, hyenas, porcupines, &c. And on the left side is a fine Arabian camel. They are all at this time on the qui vive; but there is an air of doubt and uncertainty about them all, as they have not yet heard the signal (of a blow on the gong), which immediately precedes their feeding. At length that signal is given, outside the room, and unexpectedly by the visitors; and then the scene which instantly takes place has in it a most extraordinary mixture of the terrific and the agreeable. A huge discordant roar bursts from almost every den at the same moment; and the inhabitants of each rush against the bars, rampant, and with their eyes flashing fire, and seem on the point of tearing their way into the open space where the spectators are standing. And yet in the midst of all, we feel that pleasantest of all securities, which exists in the presence of, and almost in contact with, danger and death. We are here surrounded, and as it were, looked upon, by death under its most frightful form; and yet we hold our life as securely as if we were seated by our own hearths. I know of no other situation of the kind that can be compared with this. In other cases, if we would feel the sense of danger we must encounter danger; we cannot feel it without fearing it: but here we can enjoy all the stimulus of the one, without suffering the debasing and counteracting effects of the other. To have experienced a storm at sea, or been present in a great battle, and escaped from them, are fine things doubtless; but who would risk the danger for the after pleasure? The situation nearest to the one before us is that of sailing on a calm ocean, and feeling that there is nothing between us and the fathomless abyss below, but a deal plank. Or perhaps the standing in a coalmine in the midst of the fire-damp, and holding in one's hand a lighted safety-lamp, is a still stronger example of the presence of danger and safety together, or rather of the actual contact of them; for there is actually nothing intervening between the light of the lamp and the matter which it is to act upon-nothing but a stratum of that matter itself, which is not sufficiently heated to permit the communication of the flame. But in both these instances, though the danger is there, we do not see it, and therefore do not feel it-we only, or chiefly feel the safety. But here, the danger is visible to our eyes-it rings and rattles in our ears -it actually moves our whole frames;-for the roarings and rampings of the beasts shake the very building in which we stand. And yet here we stand, as if it were a mere performance that we were wit nessing an imitation, and not the read things: But that it is the real thing, is the secret of the pleasure, or whatever else it is to be called, that we derive from it. In fact, it is sought after on the same prin ciple that we go to see a public execution; and if I might venture to forma say so much in the presence of ladies, I would add that the measure of the satisfaction to be derived from exhibitions of this hature is, the degree of healthful strength of nerve in the deriver of itsIf the habits of modern life had strength of ner of modern life had not wasted away the nerves of our nobility and gentry to mere gossamers, and thus rendered nervousness an indispens sable qualification for lady, changing a disease to a commodity," we should have combats of gladiators and athletæ, and battles of wild beasts, as they had in days of old; and the ladies would distribute the prizes at them! But the looks of some of the said ladies warn me that I am treading on tender ground; so I return to my descriptions. The gone beasts (losing all sense of courtly decorum). sounds seem ready from their dens and a man with an iron hand, who acts as carver to the royal banquet, apportions out the different meats on the sideboard, and proceeds to deliver them in the order of precedence which the guests seem naturally to claim;the great lion being served first, then the lioness, (for royalty supersedes politeness among beasts as well as men); and then the inferior guests, from the younger branches of the blood royal, through the nobility of leo- of an ox-w + 1 1:9113 I shall only notice, in particular, the behaviour of the chief guests to on this occasion, lest my account of the feast should last longer id than the feast itself. Nero, the great lion, who, until the sounds of the gong, and the receipt of his ration, had maintained a becom-id ing majesty of deportment, immediately descended from the centres of his gravity, and roared, growled, and flew about his den, exactlyǝda like a wild beast!-urged to this unseemly behaviour (b confess) by 57 the irritating conduct of the man with the iron band who approached him to a disrespectful nearness, and pretended to be about to take away his plate before he had done with it. The consort royal (who °* is a beast of extraordinary personal charms, and of most gentle s manners,) conducted herself in a very different, and perhaps a no 0 less characteristic style. When the bare bones were given to her, she took one of them (a long thigh bone of an ox) into her mouth, with out touching it with her fingers as all the rest did-and proceeded to march deliberately round and round her den with it; and this she continued to do after she had been served with the second course, of meat, and indeed, during the whole time that the banquet lasted; The Wild Beasts Banquet. 367 ggitetimi as- -as much as to indidate, to whomsoever it might concern, that she knew better what became her birth mal uso concern, station than to eat in the presence of sobservers. I confess there seemed to me a little affecy tation in this a little over-niceness; especially as a royal cousin of hers,as queen duchess, who is said to partake in some of her propensities, and who at present reigns by divine right, as she used to do in her native woods by quite as good a ovine 190 a title, namely, divine might, does not deem it beneath her dignity to dine in the presence of her admiring subjects,197 Bovbror 2011 506 2 50 The only other personage whose conduct I shall notice on this occasion, is the elephant; and it offers a singular contrast to that of the rest of the guests. Amidst all the stir, hubbub, and turmoil that It have described above, he remains grave, silent, and self-possessed-his lithe proboscis weaving fantastic wreaths in the air outside the bars: of his den, as we flourish with our finger when we are thoughtlessly thoughtful, and his thuge bulk rising through the half-darkness behind, like a deeper shadow in the midst of shade. And when he of the iron band comes to wait upon him in his t turn, he still maintains the same philosophic gravity, and does every thing that he is bid with the air of one who is not afraid to disobey, but who is willing to serve since circumstances have made servitude his lot. There is in fact something extremely interesting in the behaviour of this extraordinary animal,who seems to possess a ten horse power, only that he may exercise itq with the gentleness and docility of a well-conditioned child. He obeys his keeper in the minutest particulars, and without the slightest hesita-> tion or doubt, though his orders are issued without any change of tone. or manner from that in which he is almost at the same moment addressing the spectators, or answering their questions. Indeed, the eledi phant's natural sagacity seems to have enabled him to reach that hap piest consummation at which even the human mind can arrive-namely, a the faculty of adapting itself to the circumstances in which it is placed, of and doing its spiriting gently," whatever it may be, In conclusion, there are two things to which I decidedly object in this feast; both of them appertaining to the treatment of the chief partaker of it--the great lions. The first is the unhandsome manner pa which to his feelings are tampered with, by pretending to take away his foodf after it is given to him, merely that he may be induced to "exaggerate to his voice, and roar for the recreation of the spectators; thus deprivni ing him of that privilege which is allowed even to convicts and felons to themselves, of eating their meal in peace. The next and more impor tant circumstance, is their choosing to indignify him t ith the name of Nero. This latter I hold to be low treason at the least, if not high. Theynid might as well dub him a member of the Holy Alliance at once! And w to say the truth, should not object to this, if the other members of ai that august body would occasionally admit him to their meetings! Butism to call the king of beasts by the name of one who was scarcely worthy 2291 to be a king of men, is a manifest libel; and the Constitutional Assoot sociation should look to it. Adieu for the present. badoosing bra-bib tax Your loving Cousin, eidt bus; drow mob vd-banor ba 1911 ade |