...and is linking this story, triangulated somewhere on the map of saints' legends, Kipling-esque imaginings, and our dream of a Peaceable Kingdom.
An Ethopian girl of 12 was kidnapped and beaten on the way to a (sadly, customary) forced marriage. Three of the last 1,000 lions in the country chased off her captors and stood guard over her until she was rescued. One explanation is that her weeping and whimpering elicited the tenderness given to a mewling cub, and saved her from being eaten.
Who but they could tell us, if they would?
Years ago one of us here at the Chez dreamed she met a huge black bear on a wilderness path. When the dreamer asked the dream-figure bear why he did not eat her, he replied, unsentimentally, "Not hungry." Perhaps these lions weren't hungry either, having drunk deeply at a natural spring of Harmlessness to Beleaguered Innocence.
Ethiopian royalty styles its titles to include Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
Via the Anchoress and Instapundit.
What an amazing story! I'll link to it, if I may, and credit you.
By amazing, of course, I mean the bit about the lions standing guard, not the beating and attempted-forced-marriage bit. I just read a new acting textbook by a local fellow, and he felt it necessary to stop every so often and rail about the evil Western culture and how it degraded women and dehumanized our souls and da-da-da. Say what you will, I have yet to see a culture that respects women more than Western culture. Um, Islam? Um, Africa? Don't think so.
Posted by: MrsDarwin | June 23, 2005 at 11:50 AM
Hi, Mrs. TX Darwin. Thanks for the visits.
Yes, the complaints are all relative, and, for the most part, I'll take the local relatives rather than the romanticized "other." Adventure is good, home is even better. IMO.
Posted by: dilys | June 23, 2005 at 01:28 PM