MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN LION HUNTING. 211 



their faces, and they fled away, sneezing and expressing their 

 disgust at the smell of the weed by volleys of coughs. 



On my return to Guelma I hunted up the Arab, and asked 

 him how the Turk had induced the kid to cry during the 

 night. 



" It is very easy;" he said, " you have only to tie a string 

 to its ear, and lead the other end to your blind, and then 

 whenever the kid keeps silent all you have to do is to pull the 

 cord and the pain will make it bleat fast enough." 



In writing this book I have engaged to inform the reader 

 of the different sensations that I have felt in this kind of 

 chase. I will now avow a weakness that did not permit me 

 to torture an inoffensive kid, and that very day I returned the 

 kid to its herd. 



A little time after I procured a second worn-out horse, and 

 and had him killed on the same spot as the other. The first 

 night was passed without any result, and in order to avoid a 

 second dissection by the vultures, I covered up the body 

 with branches, and laid heavy stones on them. During the 

 day I could see the vultures in a cloud hovering over my 

 horse, but when in the evening I had returned to my post the 

 animal was untouched. 



To recount the many nights that I had passed in this 

 manner, and how many mules and horses I had sacrificed to 

 be eaten by the same beasts without the lion ever deigning to 

 draw nigh, would only shock the reader as it did the hunter. 

 I will only say for those who have any desire to kill without 

 any choice of the kind of beasts, that they can in a single 

 night, in the same situation, make a most perfect collection 



