ARAB FASHION OF HUNTING THE LION. 3*7 



chase not only those lions that come into their own lands, 

 but sometimes follow the hunt into the territory of their 

 friends, who are decimated by the ravages of these animals. 



These tribes are the Ouled-Meloul, living in the land of 

 the Haractah ; the Ouled Cessi, of the tribe of Segnia ; and 

 the Chegatma, a foreign branch that has settled within the 

 last forty years in the limits of Ain Beida. 



As the hunting of the lion becomes noble only in the pro- 

 portion that the hunter bravely dares the teeth and claws of 

 his adversary; and as the manner of hunting by the tribes of 

 Ouled Meloul and Ouled Cessi appears to me to be much 

 superior to that of the Chegatma, I will speak of these latter 

 second in order. 



The tribe of Ouled Meloul numbers about eighty hunters 

 and lives at the foot of Sid Reghis, and on the southerly 

 slope of Chepka. The Ouled Cessi, who have about the 

 same number of men, pass the summer on the plain of 

 Kercha and the summits of Guerioun, one of the highest 

 mountains of the province of Constantine, which can be seen 

 from the city of Constantine, rearing its head from the plain 

 about twelve leagues to the south. In the winter they 

 remove to another mountain, named Zerazer, about two 

 leagues to the south of Guerioun. 



The Guerioun seldom harbors a lion, unless it is some 

 wandering sojourner who makes it a halting-place for a 

 night on his journey, and continues his march across the 

 plains on the next evening. 



It is not the same with the Zeragar, which every 

 year, when the Aures, the Bouarif, and the Fedjovdj are 



