ADVICE TO THE AMATEUR LION HUNTER. 151 



perished in the field of honor ; would that you could say as 

 much some day. But my end will be most happy, if Saint 

 Hubert will allow me to die under the stroke of the proud 

 foe I have so long battled. 



While awaiting this fate, as I can no longer answer the 

 calls of the Arabs, and am obliged to choose my time and 

 season, in order to preserve the little health left me, I would 

 be happy in finding a successor, and initiating him in the secret 

 manoeuvres, the nocturnal habits, and noble character of the 

 animal that so few understand. 



To seek, await, meet and conquer him, always and every- 

 where, in the night and day, is what I want to teach you, 

 my brother, not so as to be able to say, this man is my 

 pupil, but because lion-hunting "boldly conducted by one man, 

 has been introduced into Algeria by the conquest of the 

 French, and there must not be a lack of good examples. 



The Arabs are very brave, they look upon us from their 

 simple grandeur, with insufferable disdain. I do not know 

 if they are wrong or right, for bravery has so many different 

 complexions, that each one defines it in his own way, some- 

 times according to his own spirit. 



After God, the Arabs most fear the lion. To destroy him, 

 they generally employ cunning ; drawing him, as we have 

 shown, into a ditch where they assassinate him ; or secretly 

 hidden within a pit solidly constructed in the ground, 

 called a melbeda ; or when safely mounted on the top of a 

 tree. They seldom attack him boldly face to face, and when 

 they do, it is a battle where the victory is dearly bought, 

 and seldom won. But there has never been an Arab who 



