A LION KILLED ON HIS OWN HEARTHSTONE. 305 



beef and the lioness. By the caldron that would have 

 boiled an ox, Abdallah, the minstrel, chanted rude songs of 

 valorous deeds, and the softened notes of a flute came from 

 the women's tents. 



Here sat the girls babbling away some romance 'of their 

 fancy, there were grouped the men holding high converse on 

 warlike deeds, and talking powder and ball. The herds in 

 the park lowed at the unwonted light, the dogs came in and 

 out from the shadow to seize a stray morsel, and pet gazels 

 shook their heads, and rung their bells doubtfully at the 

 bonfires. 



Then, swelling and dying, the war-song rose on the air to 

 the clapping of hands, and the gleam of waving steel, and all 

 the people — wild phantoms draped in their white burnous, 

 arose to their feet as will arise one day the dead that lie in 

 the valley of Jehcshaphat. The women sound the shrill battle 

 cry, the men reply with the firing of guns, which roll away 

 on the hills and come back in repeated echoes, and then the 

 spectres sink again to the ground, and only the sighing flute 

 breaks the sudden stillness. 



The scene excited my fancy with its beauty, and my pride 

 with its triumph ; and I can never forget its kindly memories 

 or the grateful hearts of these mountaineers. 



When the stars gave place in the sky to the reddening 

 dawn, the women retired to their tents. The men gathered 

 around the tomb of Sidi-Amar, and with their faces to Mecca, 

 devoutly listened to their holy seer as he recited the morning 

 prayers. Then one by one the whole tribe came to me to 

 bid me farewell, and I leaped in my saddle and pricked over 

 the plain towards Guelma, with a heart at ease with myself, 

 and full of emotion at the curious life I had witnessed. 



Unfortunately for man, his physical powers have a limit, 

 beyond which they cannot be pushed with impunity. 



Since my first hunting expedition, I had passed more than 



