r, and afterwards
a pantomime, full of tricks, and tumbling over one another. Then we saw
one or two other things, I forget what, but this I know, that, generally
speaking, the outside was better than the inside. After this, feeling
very hungry, we agreed to go into a booth and have something to eat.
The tables were ranged all round, and in the centre there was a boarded
platform for dancing. The ladies were there all ready dressed for
partners: and the music was so lively, that I felt very much inclined to
dance, but we had agreed to go and see the wild beasts fed at Mr
Polito's menagerie, and as it was now almost eight o'clock, we paid our
bill and set off. It was a very curious sight, and better worth seeing
than anything in the fair; I never had an idea that there were so many
strange animals in existence. There was the tapir, a great pig with a
long nose, a variety of the hippopotamus, which the keeper said was an
amphibilious animal, as couldn't live on land, and _dies_ in the water--
however, it seemed to live very well in a cage. Then there was the
kangaroo with its young ones peeping out of it--a most astonishing
animal. The keeper said that it brought forth two young ones at a
birth, and then took them into its stomach again, until they arrived at
years of discretion. Then there was the pelican of the wilderness, with
a large bag under his throat, which the man put on his head as a
night-cap, this bird feeds its young with its own blood--when fish are
scarce. There were a young elephant and three lions, and several other
animals which I forget now, so I shall go on to describe the tragical
scene which occurred. The keeper had poked up all the animals, and had
commenced feeding them. The great lion was growling and snarling over
the shin-bone of an ox, cracking it like a nut, when, by some
mismanagement, one end of the pole upon which the chandelier was
suspended fell down, striking the door of the cage in which the lioness
was at supper, and bursting it open. It was all done in a second; the
chandelier fell, the cage opened, and the lioness sprang out. I
remember to this moment seeing the body of the lioness in the air, and
then all was dark as pitch. What a change! not a moment before all of
us staring with delight and curiosity, and then to be left in darkness,
horror, and dismay! There was such screaming and shrieking, such crying
and fighting, and pushing, and fainting--nobody knew where to go