Their weight was as much as he could bear, and
they hung down almost to the ground when not contorted,--as big round as
a thigh, almost,--spotted and richly variegated. Then he put them into
the box again, their heads emerging and writhing forth, which the showman
thrust back again. He gave a descriptive and historical account of them,
and a fanciful and poetical one also. A man put his arm and head into
the lion's mouth,--all the spectators looking on so attentively that a
breath could not be heard. That was impressive,--its effect on a
thousand persons,--more so than the thing itself.
In the evening the caravan people were at the tavern, talking of their
troubles in coming over the mountain,--the overturn of a cage containing
two leopards and a hyena. They are a rough, ignorant set of men,
apparently incapable of taking any particular enjoyment from the life of
variety and adventure which they lead. There was the man who put his
head into the lion's mouth, and, I suppose, the man about whom the
anacondas twined, talking about their suppers, and blustering for hot
meat, and calling for something to drink, without anything of the wild
dignity of men familiar with the nobility of nature.
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