MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN LION HUNTING. 245 



I return to Bou-Aziz and his famous (saga), or cloud, to 

 which he had as yet given me no explanation. 



I demanded of him, " Where do they go on these noctur- 

 nal expeditions — where, for example, are your brothers and 

 cousins going this evening ?" 



" I can't say precisely where my brother and cousins are 

 going, but they don't usually return empty handed.' 7 



After a great many turnings and hesitations, I learned 

 from him that the young men who go out after this fashion 

 at night are nothing better than robbers and assassins. 

 Robbers, because they carry off by ruse or by force the cattle 

 from the douars they visit, and assassins because they kill 

 whoever opposes them in their attempt, and sometimes those 

 whom they encounter on the road. According to Bou-Aziz, 

 the Arab who has never killed a man is entitled to very 

 little respect. 



Once on the subject that seemed to him to be very interest- 

 ing, he finished by telling me that after having lost all his 

 herds in a razzia, he had made his fortune good again by pil- 

 laging here and there, and killing whoever disputed his laud- 

 able endeavors. 



Nevertheless, while still talking, stretched out on the grass, 

 the day began to dawn, and the lion had not appeared. 



Would you could have been with me that morning, fellow- 

 hunter, perched on a cliff by the edge of the forest, overlook- 

 ing the hundred paths that converged hither from the plains, 

 crowded with animals of every kind, that were returning to 

 the shelter of the w r oods. From the earliest light to sunrise, 

 it was one continuous defile of wild game, marching leisurely 

 along, according to their different modes or fancies, as though 



