Summary

Like section five of Ducks, Newburyport, the narrative of section six focuses predominantly on the lioness. In the first excerpt, the lioness and her cubs track a female jogger through their region of the mountains. Once the woman notices her pursuers, she runs for her life towards a tree and climbs it. While the kittens play with the backpack she abandoned below as though it were alive, the woman sobs uncontrollably. This pathetic display of vulnerability convinces the lioness that the woman is neither hunter nor prey. She decides to leave the woman, but not before asserting dominance by touching her snout to the jogger’s nose. Though the woman just evaded death, the lioness considers the entire event nothing more than good tree-climbing practice for her cubs.

During the second passage, the lioness parts briefly with her cubs to hunt a dangerous boar...