MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN LION HUNTING. 233 



started on the search, together with Bou-Aziz and several of 

 the Arabs, among whom was the unhappy late proprietor of 

 the animal. 



We found the body about a gun-shot from the camp ; the 

 lion had eaten a shoulder and thigh of the weight of about 

 fifty pounds. 



The owner of the animal, after walking two or three times 

 around the body, came to me and said : 



" This is the tenth he has taken from me since spring ; 

 there are forty remaining, and I will give you half of them if 

 you will free me from the destroyer. There is only one thing 

 I ask : that is to be informed of it before the rest, that I may 

 pull out his cursed beard with my own hands. 



The Arabs who were with him, thinking that it might 

 encourage me, made the same offers in proportion to the 

 amount of cattle they possessed, or the losses they had sus- 

 tained. Only one among them all decried me, saying that 

 he did not see how Bou-Aziz, who was a man ordinarily 

 of good of sense, could encourage such a foolish undertak- 

 ing. ■ 



I was not altogether satisfied with the answer to this obser- 

 vation. Instead of taking a serious view of the matter, he 

 answered with a strange smile, Achkoun Yarf? " who 

 knows V 



The was something in his smile and ambiguous reply that 

 seemed to say, " You imbeciles, what difference does it make 

 to any of us if this man gets chewed up. If he succeeds, we 

 will be gainers ; and if he loses his beard, we will be none the 

 worse for it, it will be only one Christian the less." 



