THE CHASE OF THE PANTHER. 81 



the steel short off, and I was only saved from the blow by 

 jumping quickly backwards. Two more bullets driven into 

 his brain and the desert of Mahouna had lost its king, the 

 seignor with the big head. 



Now we will return to our hero the panther. 



I have said that this animal lives by the product of the 

 chase, that he follows in the jungle with the zeal of an 

 ardent hunter ; yet this does not prevent his seizing a sheep 

 or calf that may be found wandering in the neighborhood of 

 his haunts, and many are the losses the frontier settler has 

 to undergo on his account. 



The people of Ouled Yagoub and Bern Oonjenah of the 

 Aures, say that when a panther has killed a sheep or other 

 animal for which he has no immediate use, he carries the 

 body up to the forks of some high tree, where it will be safe 

 from the prying jackal and hyena, until the time of need. 



The panther makes his home in the ledges of rocks that 

 are frequently found in this country, and tinds in their 

 crevices or closely wooded clefts a secure retreat against his 

 bitter enemy the lion, and becomes the terror of the families 

 of porcupines that inhabit with him the ledges of rocks. The 

 porcupine is covered with sharp quills from his tail to the 

 commencement of his head, and when attacked suddenly 

 draws in his head and raises his quills, becoming thus invul- 

 nerable to the most of his foes. But, alas, the panther out- 

 herods Herod, and has a cunning and quickness that are more 

 than a match for his well-armed prey. He watches for con- 

 secutive days the hole of a porcupine, and the moment the 

 animal protrudes his head from his den, with one stroke of 



4* 



