'290 THE LIOX KILLER. 



has fired at him he never eats the body. If he meets in his 

 nightly promenade a man well clothed in burnous, his 

 experience shows him that he is not a marauder, and he may 

 either kill him for food, -or if the fancy happens to take him, 

 he will kill him by fear, little by little, just as a pas- 

 time. 



In the first case he will give him barely time enough to 

 say his prayers, and then bounding on him will crush his 

 head with a single bite, instead of strangling him as he is 

 accustomed to do with other animals. 



In the second case, he sometimes will bar the passage of 

 the unfortunate fellow by lying down before him, and then 

 he will walk along by his side, purring and showing his teeth 

 like a tiger. Sometimes he makes believe to go away and 

 leave him alone, and then making a long detour he will con- 

 ceal himself along the path, and charge at him with a roar. 

 Sometimes he crouches down like a cat and bounds on his 

 victim, who gives himself up for lost, but the tantalizer only 

 knocks him over with his paw, or walking around him strikes 

 him in the face with a blow like a flail from his muscular 

 tail. 



At last the victim succombs to the agony that is greater 

 than a thousand deaths, and dies of very fear. 



These pastimes of the lion, that as one can well imagine 

 have never been told by the victim himself, are reported by 

 his comrades who, having been in company sought safety in 

 flight, by taking refuge on rocks or trees, while the poor 

 soul that was captured, too much frightened to imitate their 

 example, died before their eyes of terror while they could do 

 nothing for his relief but pray to the prophet, who only 

 heard when it was too late to save. 



These attacks, so horrible in their fascination, have given a 

 certain semblance of proof to the universally accredited belief 

 in the magnetizing power of the lion. Whether it may bo 



