ARAB FASHION OF HUNTING THE LION. 55 



" The lion is not alone, for here are the marks of another 

 lion, larger than the first one." 



Then one of the trackers comes forward, and shows that 

 they are both the tracks of the same lion, but the one is 

 fresher than the other, and points to where he has crossed the 

 first track, and gone to seek a securer covert. At length they 

 find the traces so numerous and complicated as to be no 

 longer able to follow ihem. Here is one trail going this way, 

 and there is another going in an opposite direction, which is 

 the one to be followed ? 



This is a difficult question to judge, for both are so fresli 

 that one would think that the animal had just passed as the 

 hunters arrived. The difficulty is so serious that they go 

 back to the open space they have left, in order to debate the 

 question, while one or two keep watch. Then the elders pro- 

 pose that they shall all go home, and come on the morrow 

 with some wise man or diviner, to conjure the lion, and 

 make him leave that part of the country. Others propose to 

 build a fire at the edge of the woods, as a signal for assistance. 

 Yet still the majority are in favor of a fight, and only discuss 

 the manner of bringing it about, and whether it is best to 

 follow one of these paths, or, dividing into two parties, to 

 follow them both. After discussing the two plans, they 

 adopt the latter, and commence the division of the company 

 into two parts. 



This operation is as shrewd as it is curious : 



Instead of dividing the whole number of hunters into two 

 equal bands, and placing men of equal experience in eacb 

 party, as would probably be done with us, they divide them- 



