394 THE LION KILLER. 



all thanked me with great feeling for having as they said 

 saved him from the claws of the lion, and asked me to pres- 

 cribe something for his relief. 



Poor souls ! they thought that all Frenchmen were surgeons, 

 because there are some good physicians among them ; and 

 that any one that can kill a lion, can cure the wounds he 

 makes. I never had the least notion of surgery, and as to the 

 wounds made by the lion, experience has told me that 

 recovery is doubtful, and that one almost always leaves 

 behind him an arm or a leg before he recovers, if indeed, he 

 recovers at all. This knowledge is just enough for me to 

 know on what to rely in case I ever get caught, but still is 

 very poor consolation to administer to a wounded man. 



I had often seen men injured much less than Amar, sink 

 under their wounds, and I therefore advised his parents to 

 send him to Batna, where he would find a good physician 

 and all attention. But the poor man would not consent to 

 be moved on account of the sufferings he endured at the least 

 motion, and I was constrained to try my hand with Mr. 

 Rodenburgh, in administering a poultice and binding up the 

 wounds. We then sent for an Arab doctor that enjoyed a 

 great reputation in the country, and went to visit the dead 

 game we had left in the woods. 



There was a great crowd of people swarming like bees up 

 and down the plateau where the lion had been first shot, 

 and into the ravine. By their assistance in a little while a 

 road was cut from the thicket, and by means of a litter com- 

 posed of the trunks of small trees the body was transported 

 to the place where the evening before his majesty had honor- 

 ed me with so long an interview. 



After having taken off the skin and observed with atten- 

 tion the course and effect of my balls, I abandoned the body 

 to the natives, who, with knife in hand, fell upon it with the 

 fury of hounds on a quarry. 



