File:Animal products; (1877) (14753795036).jpg

Identifier: animalproducts00simm (find matches)
Title: Animal products;
Year: 1877 (1870s)
Authors: Simmonds, Peter Lund, 1814-1897. (from old catalog)
Subjects: Animal products. (from old catalog) Domestic animals. (from old catalog)
Publisher: New York, Pub. by Scribner, Welford, and Armstrong
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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buyers to Paris or London. They havedealings with the various Governments and Zoological Gardens ofEurope. Zebras will be sold at ^450 to ^500 the pair; gnusfor^170; rhinoceroses at ;£ 1,200 the pair; tigers at^300 each. The Felines or Cat Tribe.—First in the list of the Felinesstands the Lion, of which there are two marked species, LeoAfricanus, and Leo Asiaticus, inhabiting the greater part of Africa,and the warmer districts of India. There appear to be severalvarieties, if not species, of the African lion, as Leo Barbaras andL. Gambianus. It is principally for its skin that the lion is sought, althoughliving animals are valuable for menageries and zoological collec-tions. In some years 100 to 200 skins are secured. The flesh ofthe lion is eaten by the Hottentots ; and a tribe of Arabs betweenTunis and Algeria, according to Blumenbach, live almost entirelyupon it when they can get it. When a lion has been killed andthe skin removed, the flesh is divided, and the mothers take each
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THE LION—THE PUMA. 225 a small piece of the animals heart, and give it their male childrento eat in order to render them strong and courageous. They take away as much as possible of the mane, in order tomake armlets of it, which are supposed to have the same effect. It would seem from the Journal of the Marquess of Hastings,that this superstition as to eating lions flesh is as strong in India.On the death of a lion it is stated— Anxious interest was madewith our servants for a bit of the flesh, though it should be thesize of a hazel-nut. Every native in the camp, male or female,who was fortunate enough to get a morsel, dressed it and ate it.They have a thorough conviction that the eating a piece of lionsflesh strengthens the constitution incalculably, and is a preservativeagainst many particular distempers. This superstition does notapply to tigers flesh, though the whiskers and claws of that animalare considered as very potent for bewitching people. But theflesh of the lion has a

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