the duar, which generally contains from ten reach one of his adversaries before he is to thirty tents. The pit is then surrounded wounded, he contents himself with overthrowby branches, piled up to a height of about six ing him as an obstacle, and the man, if he is or seven feet, and the cattle are placed at covered with a good burnus, often escapes with night within the tents, as near the pit as a few scratches. But if he has received one possible. When a lion comes, he vaults over or more balls, he kills or tears to pieces the the outer enclosure of the duar, and then first he seizes, or sometimes he will carry bounding among the cattle tumbles into the him off in his mouth, shaking him till he pit, "where, roaring with anger and disap- perceives other assailants, whom he attacks in pointment, he will be insulted and ill-treated, their turn. he whose imposing voice made the plain and the mountain tremble; he will die a miserable death, assassinated by cowards, by women and children." When an event like this takes place, the whole duar rises in a mass, the women scream, the men fire away to communicate the intelligence to their neighbors, the children and dogs make a horrible noise; every one is almost delirious with joy, for every one has some loss or other to avenge. There is no more sleeping that night, fires are lit, a sheep is killed, the cuscussu is got ready, there are nothing but arrivals and feasting. As to the lion, he makes one or two terrific bounds to clear the pit, but finding that this is impossible, he resigns himself to his fate. He hears all this noise-he knows that he is lost that he will die there an inglorious death, incapable of defending himself; but he will receive insults and balls alike, without wincing, without a murmur. But when he is seriously hurt, struck to death for example, and he gets hold of an assailant, he draws him under him, squeezing him in his powerful grasp; and after having placed the victim's face under his eyes, he appears, like a cat with a mouse, to rejoice in his agony. Whilst his claws tear away deliberately the flesh from his victim, his flaming eyeballs are fixed on him till he is so fascinated by the look that he neither dares to cry nor moan. From time to time the lion passes his great rough tongue over the face of the moribund, frowns at him, and shows his teeth. Under such circumstances, as a number firing may involve the death of the man as well as that of the lion, the Arabs always depute one of their number, generally a near relative to the victim, to fire into the lion at the muzzle end of his gun. If the lion is exhausted, he grinds the head of the man that is beneath him the moment he sees the barrel When day comes the women and children lowered towards his ear, closes his eyes, and begin to throw stones and abuse their captive waits the fatal blow; but if, on the contrary, enemy-the women are especially active in he can still act, he hastens to kill the victim the latter department; then the men begin to in his grasp, only to spring upon the advenfire balls at the noble beast, who, after he has turous hunter who has dared to come to his received some dozen in his body without stir-succor. The duty which thus devolves upon ring or uttering a single moan, lifts up his a near relative among the Arabs is of the most fine majestic head to cast one long look of perilous description; for as the lion remains contempt at his enemies, and then lies down couched over his victim it is impossible to to die. form a correct estimate as to his condition, After the zubiya or pit, comes the malbida and the new assailant may be torn to pieces or hiding-places, which are of two kinds; a pit before he has even time to fire his gun, still covered with branches of trees, stones, and less can any assistance be given to him, altho' earth, large enough to contain several men, his companions are standing ready only a few and with holes left to fire out of, in the direc-paces off. tion of a recently killed animal, put there as a It was absolutely necessary to understand bait; and a large old tree, in which several the character of the African lion, and the men can hide themselves and fire away in difficulty which the Arabs experience in exsafety. terminating their most formidable enemy, to There are, however, some tribes who hunt appreciate the prowess of the Algerian lionthe lion openly, but in numbers, and they killer. Should any of our readers experience have a certain set of signals understood only a qualm of incredulity, we advise them to by one another. The lion never hesitates to keep it to themselves, for the lion-killer deals attack them, even if they are thirty in num- in lingots de fer, sometimes a pointe d'acier, ber; and he is seldom killed without one of the number falling a victim to his prowess, or several leaving portions of their flesh in the claws of the expiring animal. A lion, it is to be observed, is always more dangerous at the moment of death than at any other time. Thus, at the moment of action, if he can common bullets having been discarded long ago by him; and he is such a determined rover that, depend upon it, he will come over to administer a dose to any incredulous ally who may venture to impugn his veracity or doubt his good faith. M. Jules Gerard relates, for example, that he was summoned by the U'lut Kassi, or On the 16th of July, 1845, M. Jules GeOuled Cessi, as he calls them, to assist in ex-rard received an invitation from the inhabtermination of a couple of lions who had itants of the Mahuna to assist them in getting taken up their quarters in their territory. He rid of a family of lions, who had established was glad of the opportunity, he tells us, to themselves in their neighborhood. On arriv show what could be accomplished by the will ing in their territory, he ascertained that the of a Christian dog, and, although he "assisted" at the discussion which always with the Arabs precedes action, he was determined to do the thing himself, attended by only one of the tribe to carry a second rifle: family was in the habit of quenching their thirst every night in the Wad Sharf, and, making his way to the spot indicated, he ascertained by the footprints that the family was numerous, consisting of father and mother and three children, already nearly of the age of adults. Scarcely had the Arabs quitted the place of discussion (our lion-killer relates) to reach the An old shaikh of the tribe-Tayib by name position I had assigned them, as one of observa--who was one of the party, said, 66 There tion, than a lion came out of the wood and made are too many of them; let us go away." The right towards me a second followed at about a lion-killer only bade the Arabs withdraw, he distance of fifty paces. would remain, and after prayers for his safety, and piling a heap of wood to be fired as a signal of success, they all went away, the old shaikh not forgetting to recommend the lord with the big head"-the father of the family-to the lion-killer's attentions. He had devoured his favorite mare and ten cows! I was seated on a rock which commanded the position, and which could only be reached by steps intersected with crevices. The Arab was by my side; I took my Devisme rifle and cocked it. I also cocked the reserve one-barrelled rifle and left it in the man's hands, after having encouraged him, and told him to hand it to me the moment I had fired twice. The first lion having vaulted upon the lower steps of the rock, he stopped; I was just going to pull the trigger when he turned to look at his comrade. This movement presented me the shoulder so advantageously that I no longer hesitated. He fell roaring at the discharge, tried to get up, but fell down again. Both shoulders were broken. A few minutes more (M. Jules Gerard relates) the shaikh had disappeared in the wood, and Í remained alone on the banks of the Wad Sharf, in presence of the traces of five lions who had been there the evening before, of the pile erected in their honor, and of the mysterious cover upon which the shadows of night already threw an impenetrable veil, and which my imagination delighted in tearing open in order to count the The second was already at the foot of the teeth and claws of the "lord with the large rock, his tail up; he received the first shot a lit-head," and of the family he claimed protection tle behind the shoulder when about ten paces from his companion; he was staggered for a moment, but soon recovered himself, and with a prodigious spring reached the very rock on which I stood. To take the rifle out of the hands of the trembling Arab, to aim it at the lion's temple, to fire and kill it on the spot at a distance of barely four paces, was done and accomplished, thanks to the protection of Saint Hubert, my patron in less time than it takes me to write it down. over. The ravine of the Mahuna, in the depths of which I had taken my station, is at once the most picturesque and the most savage that it is possible to imagine. Let the reader picture to himself two mountains cleft perpendicularly below, and their slopes above intersected by profound ravines, and covered with forests of evergreen oak, wild olives, and lentiscs. Between these two mountains is the bed of the Wad Sharf, almost dry in summer, and literally strewn with the dung of animals of different kinds, but in winter-time scarcely fordable from swollen waters. deemed uninhabitable. Yet there have been To look at this ravine from afar, it would be families sufficiently bold to settle there, at a time when they have been persecuted in the plain, and have been obliged to save their property and their lives-to choose a retreat safe, at all events, from man. This is the way to kill lions-two at one sitting-without a scratch or even a chance of resistance on the part of the powerful beasts! Well may the lion-killer have felt proud of his prowess in the presence of the brave but unskilful Arab! How such success shows what can be done, with efficient arms and a steady hand and eye. The conscious ness that the least wavering in firmness of purpose at such a supreme crisis must entail Notwithstanding the ravages committed by an inevitable and a painful death, would un-lions, these families have chosen to abide by nerve some people; others, on the contrary, their seclusion; and each of them, when disit would only nerve to the point and steady for the lions, so much for the state, and so much cussing their annual budget, says: "So much to the emergency. It is manifestly, however, for us." And the lion's share is always ten no sport for a constitutionally nervous man- times greater than that of the state. he had better keep to spearing wild boars in The paths of communication on the slopes of company, or shooting tigers from an elephant's the two mountains are so narrow and bad, that back. in many places a man on foot can scarcely make his way without running the risk of braking his neck. I had just got down the powder, when, by an effort which made him roar with pain, he got It is the same with regard to the fords which within three paces of me, exhibiting at the same lead across the Wad Sharf, and establish a com-time all his teeth; a second ball made him, like munication between one slope and the other. That by which the lions came to drink at the stream, and which I was now watching, was, like the rest, narrow and abrupt. At this place the Wad Sharf made a bend, which limited the view in either direction still more, so that the precise spot where I stood was like the bottom of a funnel, and so dark that neither sun nor moon-my second sun-ever lit it up. Since that night I have passed many another, and in localities very little frequented, but I have never passed one that appeared to me so short. Seated near an oleander that overlooked the ford, I sought with eyes and ears the fire of a tent or the barking of a dog in the mountain; something that would say to me: You are not alone." But everything was wrapt in silence and obscurity, and as far as the eye or the ear could reach there were no men. I was there alone with my rifle. Nevertheless time crept on, and the moon, which I had no hopes of seeing, so circumscribed was my horizon, began to cast around me a kind of twilight, which awoke in me a sense of deep gratitude. the first, roll down into the bed of the rivulet; three times he returned to the charge, and it was only by the third ball, fired right into his eye, that he was stretched out dead. I said that at the first fire the lion roared with pain; at the same moment, and as if it had seen what was taking place, a panther began to cry out with all its strength, on the left bank of the Wad Sharf. At the second shot, the lion having roared as before, the same cry made itself heard, and another like it answered it further on, below the ford. In short, as long as this drama lasted, three or four panthers, whose presence in the neighborhood I never suspected, nor have I ever heard them or seen them since, got up a perfect bacchanalian row, in joy for the death of an enemy whom they held in utmost dread. The lion I had killed was about three years of age, fat, well-proportioned, and armed like an adult. After having made sure that he was worth the powder expended on him, and that the Arabs, when they saw him, would salute him with satisfaction and respect, I thought of the pile, which was not long lighting up the two It was about cleven o'clock, and I was begin-sides of the mountain. ning to feel surprised at having waited so long, The sound of a distant shot was brought to when I thought I heard the crackling of wood. me by the echo; it was the signal of victory By degrees the sound became more distinct; sent by the shaikh to all the duars of the Mait came, there was no longer any doubt upon huna, who answered it in their turn. the matter, from several large animals. Soon I perceived several luminous points of a reddish movable hue that were advancing towards me. I had now no trouble in making out the family of lions who were coming in a file along the path which led to the ford at which I was stationed. Instead of five, I could only make out three, and when they stopped at a distance of some fifteen paces, on the banks of the river, it appeared that the one which led the way, although of a more than respectable size and physiog; nomy, could not be the lord with the great head who had been so strongly recommended to me by the shaikh. At break of day upwards of two hundred Arabs, men, women, and children, arrived from all sides, to contemplate, and insult at their ease, their fallen enemy. Whilst this drama, as the lion-killer justly enough designates it, was being enacted, it appeared from the report of the old shaikh, Tayib, that the veteran with the big head had made free with another of his oxen. Between the time of the fall of his son on the Wad Sharf and the 13th of August following, a single inhabitant of Mahuna, Lakdar by name, of no less than forty-five sheep, a mare, and was deprived by this ferocious beast of prey There they were, all three looking at me with twenty-nine head of cattle: an expression of astonishment. According to the plan I had laid out for myself, I aimed at lates) I arrived at his tent on the evening of the At his earnest request (M. Jules Gerard rethe first, right at the shoulder, and fired. A 13th of August; I passed several nights in expainful and terrible roar replied to the discharge ploring the neighborhood without finding the of my gun, and as soon as the smoke allowed animal. The evening of the 26th, Lakdar said me to perceive anything, I made out two lions to me: "The black bull is missing from the retracing their steps slowly into the wood, and herd, therefore the lion has come back. Tothe third, with both shoulders broken, dragging himself towards me on his belly. I at once understood that the father and mother were not of the party, a circumstance which caused me no particular regret. Feeling satisfied as to the intentions of those whom the fall of their brother had induced to withdraw themselves so unceremoniously, I only troubled myself with the former. morrow morning I shall go and seek for his remains, and if I find them, bad luck to him." Lakdar had returned. When he woke me up, I found him doubled up near me and motionless. His face was beaming, his burnus damp with dew; his dogs, couched at his feet, were covered with mud, for the 'night had been stormy. "Good morning, brother," he said to me, "I have found him; come." Without asking him a single question, I took my rifle and followed him. After having traversed a great wood of wild olives, we descended into a ravine, where tumbled down rocks and a dense overgrowth rendered further progress extremely difficult. When we had arrived at the very worst part we found ourselves in presence of the defunct bull. The breast and thighs had been devoured, the remainder was untouched, and the lion had turned the bull so that the parts on which he was feeding should lie undermost. I said to Lakdar: I had then only killed two lions, and felt very anxious to kill a third with this weapon, since made illustrious by thirteen victories, but which is even now less dear to me because it has been "Bring me a cake and some water immedi- my companion and my safety for three hundred ately, and let no one come near here till to-nights, than because it was given to me by the morrow morning." After he had brought me my dinner, I took up my station at the foot of a wild olive-tree about three paces distant from the bull. I cut off a few branches in order to cover myself from behind, and I waited. I waited for a long time. At about eight o'clock, the dim rays of the new moon which was sinking below the horizon, no longer lit up the corner in which I lay secreted but very feebly. Leaning against the trunk of the trce, and only able to distinguish such objects as were close to me, I contented myself with listening. A branch cracked at a distance; I got up and assumed a commodious offensive position; my elbow lay upon my left knee, my rifle stuck to my shoulder, my finger was on the trigger, 1 listened a moment but without hearing anything more. At last a stifled roar broke forth within thirty paces of me, and then came nearer; it was succeeded by a kind of low guttural sound, which, with the lion, is a sign of hunger. Immediately afterwards the animal made no more noise, and I could not make out where he was till I saw his monstrous head leading over the shoulders of the bull. He was beginning to lick it, having his eyes fixed on me all the time, when an ingot of iron struck him an inch from his left eye. He roared, rose up upon his hind legs, and received another ingot, which tumbled him over on the spot. Struck by this second shot in the very centre of his chest, he was stretched on his back by the blow, and worked his enormous paws in the air. prince. A fever which I had caught during my first excursions had prevented me entering upon a new campaign. Hoping that the sea air would benefit me, I went to Bône at the end of Feb ruary. But having received intelligence that a great old lion was committing ravages in the neighborhood of the camp of Drayan, I sent to Ghelma for my arms, and left Bône the 26th of Feb ruary. The 27th, at five o'clock in the evening, I ar rived at the duar of the U'lat Bu Azizi, not above a mile and a half from the haunt of my beast, which, according to the old men of the tribe, had taken up his abode in the Jibal Krunaga for the last thirty years. I learnt, on arriving, that every evening, at sunset, the lion roared on leaving his den, and that at night he came down into the plain still roaring. It appeared impossible that I should not meet him, so I loaded both my guns as hastily as I could, nor indeed scarcely had I concluded the operation, to which the greatest attention must always be paid, than I heard the lion roaring in the mountain. My host offered to accompany me to the ford which the lion would pass on leaving the mountain; so I gave him my other gun to carry, and we started. It was so dark that we could not see two paces before us. After having walked about a quarter of an hour through cover, we arrived on the banks of a rivulet which flowed from the Jibal Krun-aga. My guide, exceedingly disturbed by the roar ing which kept coming nearer and nearer, said: After having reloaded, I went up to the lion, and thinking that he was almost dead, I struck" The ford is there." with my dagger at his heart; but by an involuntary movement he warded off the blow, and the blade broke upon his fore-arm. I jumped back, and as he was lifting up his enormous head, I administered to him two more ingots, which finished him off. I endeavored to examine the position, but everything_around me was enveloped in utter darkness; I could not even see my Arab, who touched me. Not being able to distinguish anything with my eyes, I began to descend to the rivulet, in And thus perished the "lord with the great order to discover by feeling with the hand if head." It is absurd to try and shoot lions when it is perfectly dark-a little moonlight is absolutely necessary. Our lion-killer, accustomed there were any remains of animals.-It was a narrow pent-up ford, the approaches to which were difficult and abrupt. Having selected a stone which would serve as a seat, right over the waters of the rivulet and a little above the ford, I dismissed my guide, much | to his satisfaction. Whilst I had been reconnotring the locality he kept saying: "Let us go back to the duar; the night is too dark; we will seek the lion tomorrow by daylight." Not daring to return to the duar alone, he hid himself in a mass of lentiscs about fifty paces away from the ford. After having ordered him not to move, come what might, I took up my position on the stone. The lion had never ceased roaring, and was coming gradually nearer and nearer. Having closed my eyes for a few minutes, I succeeded, on opening them, in making out a vertical bank at my feet, cut out no doubt when the waters were swollen, for the rivulet now flowed at a depth of some feet below: the ford was to my left, a little more than a gun's length: I arranged my plan accordingly. If I could make out the lion in the rivulet I would fire at him there, the bank being in my favor, if I was lucky enough to wound him seriously. It was about nine o'clock, when a loud roar burst forth a hundred yards from the rivulet. I cocked my gun, and my elbow on my knee, the butt on my shoulder, my eyes fixed on the water, which I caught sight of at times: I waited. If I fell with the shock of the bound (which is more than probable), so long as I had both hands free, my left should search the region of the heart, and my right should strike the blow. If next morning two bodies are found mutually embracing one another, mine, at all events, will not have left the field of battle, and that of the lion will not be far off,—the dagger will have told the rest. I had just drawn my dagger from its scabbard, and stuck it in the earth within reach of my hand, when the lion's eyes began to lower towards the rivulet. I bade good-by to those I loved best, and having promised them to die well, when my finger sought for the trigger I was less agitated than the lion that was taking to the water. I heard his first step in the rivulet, which flowed past rapidly and noisily, and then nothing more. Had he stopped? Was he walking towards me? That is what I asked myself as I sought to penetrate with my eyes the dark veil that wrapped everything around me, when I thought I heard close to me, to the left, the sound of his footfall in the mud. He was indeed out of the rivulet, and was quietly ascending the slope towards the ford, when the movement I made induced him to stop short. He was only four or five paces from me, and could reach me with a single bound. It is useless to seek the sight of a rifle when Time began to appear long, when, from the opposite bank of the rivulet, and immediately in front of me, there came a deep sigh, with a gut-one cannot see the barrel. I fired as I best could, tural sound like the rattling in the throat of a man in the agony of death. my head up and my eyes open, and, by the momentary flash, I made out an enormous mass, hairy, but without form. A terrific roar followed; the lion was mortally wounded. To the first burst of grief succeeded dull threatening moans. I heard the animal struggling in the mud on the banks of the rivulet, and then he grew quiet. Thinking he was dead, or at all events incapable of getting out of the hole he was in, I returned to the duar with my guide, who having heard all that had passed, was persuaded that the lion was ours. Whoever has not seen an adult lion in a wild state, living or dead, may believe in the possi- I need not say that I did not sleep that night. bility of a struggle, body to body, with a lion. At the first break of day we arrived at the ford; He who has seen one knows that a man strug- no lion was to be seen. We found, in the midst gling with a lion is a mouse in the claws of a cat. of a pool of blood, of which the animal had lost I have said that I had already killed two lions; a large quantity, a bone as big as a finger, which the smallest weighed five hundred pounds. He had, with one stroke of his enormous paw, brought a horse at full speed to a stand-still. Horse and rider had remained upon the spot. From that time I was sufficiently aware of their resources to know what I had to do. I no longer, for example, looked to my dagger as a means of safety. led me to suppose he had a shoulder broken. A great root had been cut in two by the lion's jaws from the side of the embankment, about two feet from where I stood. The agony that he must have felt by the tumble experienced from this mishap was the cause, no doubt, of the moans I had heard, and had prevented him renewing his attack. It was in vain that we followed the traces of his blood; he had kept along the bed of the rivulet, and they were soon lost. But what I said to myself,-and I repeat it now,-in a case where one or two balls did not succeed in killing a lion (a great possibility), The next day the Arabs of the country, who when he should bound upon me, if I could resist had many losses to lay to the account of the lion, the shock, I would make him swallow my gun and who were persuaded that he was mortally up to the stock; and then, if his powerful claws wounded, came and offered to help in the search. have neither torn nor harpooned me, I would There were sixty of us-some on foot, others work away with my dagger at his eyes or heart, on horseback; after some hours of ineffectual according as I should be placed with regard to search, I returned to the duar, and was preparthe animal and the amount of freedom of actioning to take my departure, when I heard several which I still possessed. |