294 THE LION KILLER. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



AN ACCOUNT OF TWO LIONS THAT " WOULD NOT DOWN." 



In tlie month of August, of the same year, I again visited 

 the Mahouna country. 



While I was sitting at dinner, in the tent of Ahmeh-ben- 

 Amar, the sheik of the Ouled Amzah, at about eight o'clock 

 in the evening, we heard a lioness roar not far from the 

 douar. In a quarter of an hour we met face to face, within 

 twelve paces of each other ; I immediately fired, and she fell 

 with the report of my gun. 



I waited an instant, and not seeing her move, I threw a 

 stone at her, which struck her body and bounced off. This 

 producing no effect, I walked up to her, and found the mark 

 of my ball that had entered at her temple, but had not gone 

 through the head. Not seeing any of the Arabs approaching, 

 I walked back to a little eminence, from whence I could see 

 the tents of the douar, and called to the Arabs to bring a 

 mule to carry home the lioness. 



The men came running after me in haste fo see the animal, 

 asking me where she lay, I pointed out to them the spot, and 

 they ran on. When I came up to them they said they could 

 not find her, and on my coming after them a moment later, to 

 my inexpressible astonishment and mortification, the lioness 

 was nowhere to be seen. Yet it could not be a dream. My 

 hands were all red, and I found the soil at the place where 

 she had been lying soaking wet with her blood. It was 



