24 NEIGHBORS WITH CLAWS AND HOOFS. 



Slowly and cautiously the children of the waste advance. 

 They listen with erect ears, they strain their eyes to pene- 



The Lion and its Prey. 



trate the thicket's gloom ; but nothing suspicious appears 

 or moves along the bank. Long and deeply they quaff 

 the delicious draught, when suddenly, with a giant spring, 

 like lightning bursting from a cloud, the lion bounds upon 

 the unsuspecting revelers, and the leader of the herd lies 

 prostrate at his feet." 



4:. During the daytime the lion seldom attacks man, 

 and sometimes even when meeting a traveler he is said to 

 pass him by unnoticed ; but when the shades of evening 

 descend his mood undergoes a change. After sunset it is 

 dangerous to venture into the woody and wild regions of 

 Mount Atlas, in Africa, for there the lion lies in wait, and 

 there one finds him stretched across the narrow path. 



5. It is then that dramatic scenes of exciting interest 

 frequently take place. When, so say the Bedouins, a sin- 

 gle man thus meeting a lion is possessed of a brave heart, 



