ARAB FASHION OF HUNTING THE LION. 31 



of the habits of the lion in my last chapter, I will not enlarge 

 upon that subject at this place, except for the purpose of 

 explaining what is to follow. 



In order to avoid the neighborhood of the lions, who are 

 always to be found on the sides of the wooded hills, the Arabs 

 remove their tents, and remain at a distance from the highlands 

 during the spring, summer, and autumn. The lion never going 

 abroad before sunset, the encampments established at eight 

 or ten leagues from the mountain, are comparatively safe 

 from his attacks during these seasons, as he always returns to 

 his lair with the day dawn. 



It is true that each tribe having a limited territory, there 

 are but few that can remove so far from their dangerous 

 neighbors, and therefore there are some tribes that pay all 

 the contributions, while others sleep in peace. 



At the commencement of winter the Arab population 

 is forced to draw nearer the mountains, to gain shelter for 

 their cattle and procure fuel for burning, and it is at this 

 period that the lions, with appetites sharpened by the cold, 

 live on the fat of the land. 



In the countries usually inhabited by these animals, the 

 Arabs, too lazy to work themselves, hire the Kabyles, who 

 for a small recompense, dig a ditch of the depth of thirty 

 feet, and from thirteen to sixteen feet wide, in the form 

 of wells, larger at the bottom than at the top. This ditch 

 is always dug on the upper side of the place to be 

 occupied by the douar * during the winter season. The 



* Douar, an Arab name, which signifies a collection of tents, varying from ten to 

 wenty. 



