A LION KILLED ON HIS 0"*VN HEARTHSTONE. 301 



sou] ! But I couldn't help laughing to myself as I heard her 

 amid her sobs soundly rate her son for his cowardice. The 

 hopeful boy was a great booby about forty years of age, and 

 the old woman said to him, speaking of me, 



"Law me, that's what I call a man. Happy the girl that 

 has him for a husband, she will have a man to protect her. 1 ' 



Then she added seriously, " Oh ! if 1 could grow young 

 again I would marry him, Christian, though he is." 



I told the old lady, that on the next day she should eat 

 some of the lioness's flesh, and that would make her young 

 again. 



" Ah, but I can eat her flesh with a good appetite, heartless 

 w r retch that she is, to go and eat up my poor little lamb." 



I here left the affectionate parent, and -went to the fire to 

 thaw out my half- frozen limbs. 



Early the next morning, when I was getting ready to leave 

 the camp, my inamorata of the previous evening presented 

 herself at my tent, bringing me some cakes made after her 

 own fashion, and her w r armest prayers for my success. I left 

 the douar with several Arabs, following the tracks the lioness 

 had made when carrying away the stolen sheep. Her course 

 lav along a path that ran parallel with the one I had been 

 watching, and I could see in the snow that she had walked 

 at an easy pace, stopping from time to time, to rub off the 

 snow that clogged her feet. At about a mile and a half from 

 the douar we came to the place where she had dined. There 

 was nothing remaining of the old lady's sheep but its skin, 

 which had been neatly pulled off, and was rolled up and cast 

 aside with the extremities of the four legs. From here the 

 trail ran on for about a pistol-shot, and then went into the 

 woods. Here the Arabs came to the conclusion, that it 

 would be safest for them to wait and kindle a fire, not 

 intending in the least to hinder me, in case I desired to carry 

 my researches any further. Rather pleased than otherwise 



