MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN LION HUNTING. 225 



tent poles, which are young trees with the branches trimmed off. 

 If, sometimes, the beast runs away doubled up under the blow, 

 he oftener turns upon his assailant, who is obliged to defend him- 

 self with a great deal of skill to avoid being severely bitten. 

 One cannot understand this spectacle without having seen it» 

 and it appeared to me more than ridiculous, particularly 

 when an Arab gravely handed to me a stick of the same 

 kind with which to defend myself, and preserve my food 

 while at dinner. 



Order having been again established, the man in attendance 

 at last reached our party, and deposited in the midst of the 

 circle a large wooden dish of about a yard in diameter, filled 

 to the brim with couscoussou, a kind of semoule, and covered 

 over with the half of a sheep. Hardly had the tray been set 

 down, when all the guests attacked the mutton with nature's 

 forks, and an appetite worthy of the brutes that formed an 

 outer circle, and were kept at a distance by two or three men 

 armed with sticks. I watched the operation of eating with 

 the greatest curiosity, but with little relish. My host noticing 

 that I did not partake, came around to my side and snatching 

 away a piece of mutton from the fingers of my busy neigh- 

 bors, tore it in strips and laid it before me. As even this did 

 not tempt me, he made a sort of hole in the couscoussou and 

 then pouring into it a species of liquid colored white and 

 brown, which seemed to be a mixture of milk and soup, he 

 stirred it up with his finger as if he was making mortar. 



Seeing that I still was in doubt about joining in their feast, 

 he sent for a woooden cup with which I dipped up some 

 couscoussou from that portion of the dish that seemed the 



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