36 THE LION KILLER. 



blirfd, and passes over it without suspecting that his enemies 

 are under it ; and then after a few useless efforts to discover " 

 his foes, he takes to the nearest woods in the neighborhood, 

 to die of his wounds or recover in quietness. 



Sometimes the Arabs who have wounded a lion in this 

 manner, call their tribe to hunt him by following the traces 

 of blood he left in his flight, but as such a chase always ends 

 in the death of one or more of the pursuers, they generally 

 leave the animal either to cure himself of his wounds, or die 

 in his solitary fastness. 



The blind in the trees is constructed after the same plan, 

 only branches are used instead of stones to hide the hunter. 

 A young tree is chosen of a middle size growing near a path, 

 and the hunter fixes his ambush in the middle of its clustering 

 branches, these blinds are usually permanent, and serve for 

 many generations. It sometimes happens that when a lion 

 has killed a beef or a horse, in the neighborhood of a camp 

 the Arabs construct in haste a melbeda, from which to kill 

 the animal when he comes to his prey on the succeeding 

 night. Often, however, they have their trouble for their 

 pains, for the lion dainty in the matter of meat for his own 

 stomach, gets his dinner in other quarters, leaving the rem- 

 nants of his first repast, like a royal prince as he is, to the 

 hyenas, the jackals, and the vultures. 



There are in the province of Oonstantine, portions of three 

 different tribes that hunt the lion in the open field. They 



