AX EXCURSION TO THE MAHOUNA COUNTRY. 2*1*1 



Saadi-bou-Nar, roused the second time that night from his 

 slumbers, sprang to his gun, and was about to fire over my 

 shoulder. With a motion of my arm I pushed aside the 

 barrel of his gun, and when the beast, still roaring furiously, 

 was within three steps of me, I fired my second barrel 

 directly in his breast. 



Before I could seize my companion's gun, the lion rolled 

 at my feet, bathing them in the blood that leaped in torrents 

 from his throat. 



He had fallen dead so near me, that I could have touched 

 him from where I stood. 



At the first moment, I thought I was dreaming, and that 

 it was impossible that the huge bulk that lay motionless 

 before me, was the same animal that, endowed with super- 

 human strength, and vomiting peals of thunder, was just 

 before leaping through the air. But the cries of Saadi-bou- 

 Nar calling the Arabs of the douar, proved to me that it was 

 no dream. I cannot explain the reason, but the death of the 

 lion did not give me the same pleasure as that of my first 

 victim, but how could it be otherwise ? 



In looking for my balls, 1 found the first one, the one that 

 had not killed, just behind the shoulder where I had intended 

 it to hit, and the second, that had been fired in haste, and 

 almost at hazard, had been the one that was mortal. From 

 this moment I learned that it does not suffice to aim cor- 

 rectly to kill a lion, and that it is a feat infinitely more 

 serious than I had at first supposed. 



But slowly my pre-occupation became dissipated, and little 

 by little, as I contemplated the lordly grace of my victim 

 crouched at my feet in death, and heard the reports of mus- 

 ketry carrying the fame of my victory from camp to camp, I 

 became less thoughtful, and drank with pleasure the intoxi- 

 cating cup of success. 



Nevertheless, I wondered at the lethargy of the Arabs, 



