ose qualities they are supposed to have, and
sometimes they are actually called by the names of these animals. Thus
we may say that a person is "as sly as a fox," or we may call him an
"old fox," and every one understands the same thing by both
expressions.

The cause of this continual comparison of human beings with animals is
that long ago, when these expressions first began to be used, animals,
and especially wild animals, played a great part in the lives of the
people. In the Middle Ages great parts of England, now dotted over
with big towns, were covered with forest land. Wolves roamed in the
woods, and the fighting of some wild animals and the taming of others
formed a most important part of people's lives. The same thing was,
of course, the case in other countries. So familiar were people in
those days with animals that they thought of them almost as human
beings and believed that they had their own languages. It was people
who believed these things who made up many of the old fairy tales
about animals--stories like "Red Riding Hood" and the "Three Bears."

We often say that we are "as hungry as a wolf;" but we who have never
seen wolves except behind the bars of their cages at the Zoological
Gardens do not know how hungry a wild wolf can be. Those, however, who
first used this expression thought of the lean and hungry wolves who
prowled round the farms and cottages in the hard winter weather,
driven by starvation to men's very doors. We also have the expression,
"a wolf in sheep's clothing." By this we mean a person who is really
dangerous and harmful, but who puts on a harmless and gentle manner to
deceive his victim.

Another use of the word _wolf_ is as a verb, meaning to eat in a very
quick and greedy manner, as we might imagine a hungry wolf would do,
and as our forefathers knew by experience that they did do. Most of
the people who use the names of the wolf and the fox in these ways do
not know anything of the habits of these animals, but the expressions
have become part of the common language.

The same thing is, of course, true about the lion, with which even our
far-off English ancestors had never to fight. But the lion is such a
fierce and magnificent animal that it naturally appeals to our
imagination, and we find numerous comparisons with it, chiefly in
poetical language. We say a soldier is as "brave as a lion," or
describe him as a "lion in the fight."

A less complimentary comparison is an e