820 THE LION KILLER. 



Id the year 1840, a lioness had given birth to a litter of 

 young in the woods where I was now watching six years 

 after. 



The same Sheik who had come with me from Guelina, had 

 called together sixty men of his tribe, and they had hunted 

 through this very cover, and found two lion whelps. En- 

 chanted with their discovery, the band carried off the help- 

 less animals, and marched down the mountain, singing songs 

 of victory. The lioness finding out her loss, followed the party, 

 and bounded on one of the bravest of the warriors in the mid- 

 dle of the band ; then receiving a mortal wound she sprang 

 on another, and tore him to pieces, falling dead on her victim, 

 and the two hunters were carried home side by side with 

 the dead body of the lioness. On my arrival at the douar, the 

 Sheik had recounted to me the story of this hunt in its 

 minutest particulars. As he told the tale, the different actors 

 whom he called by name, would speak, saying, " That was 

 I," and display the ghastly wounds made by the bereaved 

 mother. 



The remembrance of this tragedy had protected, on 

 this occasion, the cradle of the lioness, and although the 

 nursery fare w r as an expensive addition to the usual cost of 

 supporting a lioness, the Arabs bore the demands of the 

 growing family without any attempt at resistance. This was 

 the cause of my being found on a dark cold night, crouched 

 in the forest from which I had a little before taken a lion's 

 whelp, while the warriors of Beni-Foughal were reposing in 

 their tents. 



It might have been about eight o'clock in the evening," 

 when I heard the steps of what seemed to be a large animal. 

 The nearer they came, the heavier they seemed, until at last 

 I was certain of it — it was the lioness. 



When within about six paces, the animal suddenly stopped. 

 Fearing that she had seen or scented me, and would clear 



