40 THE LION KILLER. 



Although the Arabs are very imimpassioned, it is easy to 

 judge of their individual valor at this moment, and how 

 each one will bear himself in the battle. I must render 

 them the justice to say, that even among the youngest, and 

 there are many beardless youths who follow the hunt, one 

 never encounters braggadocios. This is the result, without 

 doubt, of the fact that each one has to pay with his own life 

 for any imprudence, and that those who have proved them- 

 selves unworthy, are forced to stay at home, the butt of the 

 women and children, who do not hesitate to visit upon them 

 their maledictions for what is most generally sure to occur 

 on the hunt, the death of one or more of the hunters. 



As soon as the men who tracked the animal have come in 

 with their report concerning his sex, his age and lair, which 

 knowledge they gain from his tracks alone, the hunters take 

 the necessary steps for opening the attack. The trackers 

 retire to one side with some of the old men of the tribe, 

 whose white beards, and bent forms tell their age and wis- 

 dom, but who have for the occasion resumed all the energy 

 of youth. 



After a long council in which each one gives his opinion 

 on the best plan of attack, they unanimously select one which 

 they communicate to the assembly, and which is executed 

 without opposition. 



The guns are discharged and reloaded with the greatest 

 care. Five or six of the youngest hunters are sent to the 

 ridge of the mountain, with orders to follow all the motions 

 of the lion, from the moment of attack to the final result, and 

 to communicate them to their comrades by means of signs 



