MV FIRST EXPERIENCE IN LION HUNTING. 199 



visited their douars, on account of the length of the expedi- 

 tion, I supposed they had heard some bad news from their 

 families, and I asked the officer, who spoke our language with 

 great fluency, whether it was so. 



" Listen," he said, pointing towards the open plain. 



I listened and heard a distant sound, now sharp, and now 

 heavy, but which appeared extremely loud, judging from the 

 distance from which it came. Seeing that I heard it, the 

 officer turned to me and said : 



" Do you know what that is ?" 



" No," I answered. 



" That is the lion, the lion of Archioua, who during the 

 time that we have been in the field, has decimated our 

 herds, and will yet take what is left." 



" But since you have come back, and will to-morrow return 

 to your douars, you will hunt and kill him, and that will end 

 the trouble ?" 



Never did a foolish speech meet with such a reception, as 

 the one I had just made in the innocence of my heart. After 

 innumerable sarcasms and jokes, they explained to me that 

 the Arabs would rather let the lion take what he chose than 

 attack him themselves, and they showed as plainly as two 

 and two make four, that the lion has the perfect right to 

 mock at all the Arab race. 



It w r as growing late, and the Arabs w r ere about retiring, 

 when I said to the officer and his astonished spahis, " God 

 willing, I who am no Arab, will kill the lion, and then he 

 will do you no more mischief." 



Letting my acquaintances account as they pleased for this 



