arises from the numerous instances which
the animal has given of his strength and
courage. There have been many struggles,
many combats— always has the lion proved
the strongest. When he has fallen before the
force of numbers, the victory has cost too
dear.

The lion's existence is divided into two
distinct parts, which make him, to a certain
extent, two distinct animals, and have given
rise to numberless errors respecting him.
Those two parts are, the night and the day.
By day his habit is to retire into the forest,
away from noise, to digest and sleep at his
ease. Because a man has chanced to meet face
to face, with impunity, by day, a lion whom
the flies or the sun has compelled to shift his
quarters, or who was driven by thirst to the
nearest brook, it has been said that the lion
will not attack man; it has been forgotten
that the animal was half asleep, and also had
his stomach full. In a country like Algeria,
literally covered with flocks and herds, the
lion is never hungry during the day. The
natives, fully aware of that, take care to keep
at home at the hour when the lion leaves his
den; and, if they are obliged to travel by
night, they never do so alone or on foot.

It is difficult to estimate the destruction of
life and property caused in Africa by lions.
One lion, whose acquaintance was specially
sought after by M. Gérard, had been domiciled
in the range of hills called Jebel-Krounega
for more than thirty years. During
that time his maintenance must have cost
the neighbourhood no small trifle. From the
age of eight months to a year, lion whelps
begin to attack the flocks of sheep and goats
which during the day come into the
neighbourhood of their home. Sometimes they
attack cattle; but they are still so clumsy,
that there are often ten beasts wounded
for one killed, and their father is obliged to
interfere. It is not before they are two years
old that young lions are able to strangle a
horse, a bullock, or a camel, by a single bite
in the throat, and to clear the hedges, more
than six feet high, by which the douars are
supposed to be protected. The period from
one to two years of age is absolutely ruinous
to the country; in fact, the amiable family
kill not merely to feed themselves, but to
learn how to kill. It is easy to imagine the
expense of such an apprenticeship to those
who have to supply the materials worked
upon. The Arabs, on pitching their tents in
a fresh spot, calculate as follows: so much for
me, so much for the government, and so
much for the lion; and the lion has always
the lion's share. Lions are not adult till
they are eight years old. At that age they
have acquired their complete strength; and
the male, a third larger than the female, has
his full mane. Do not judge of wild lions by
the degenerate individuals whom you behold
in menageries. The latter have been taken
from the teat, and brought up like tame
rabbits, not with their mothers' milk, open-
air life, and liberty; but with insufficient
and unhealthy diet. Hence their mean
and slender proportions, their wretched
physiognomy, and their scanty mane, which
make them resemble poodle-dogs, and would
cause them to be disowned by their fellow-
brutes in a state of nature, who live well
by plundering the Arabs, and on whom they
lay a tax ten times heavier than that which
is paid to the state. A lion's life lasts from
thirty to forty years. He annually kills or
consumes six thousand francs' (two
hundred and forty pounds') worth of horses,
mules, oxen, camels, and sheep. Taking the
average length of his existence, which is
thirty-five years, every lion costs the Arabs
two hundred and ten thousand francs. The
thirty lions at this moment to be found in
the province of Constantine, and who will be
replaced by others arriving from the regency
of Tunis or Morocco, cost a hundred and
eighty thousand francs annually. In the
districts where M. Gerard habitually shoots,
the Arab who pays five francs in taxes to
the state, pays fifty to the lion. The
natives have destroyed half the woods of
Algeria, to keep these dangerous animals at a
greater distance. The French authorities, in
the hope of putting a stop to the fires which
threaten to destroy the forests completely,
inflict heavy fines on the Arabs who act as
incendiaries. What happens? The Arabs
club to pay the fines, and the fires go on
as destructively as ever.

The lion's black-mail on property is exacting
enough; now for that on human life. In
summer time, when the days are long, the
black-maned lion (there are three varieties of
lion in Algeria) leaves his den at sunset, and
takes his post by the side of a mountain-path,
to wait for late-travelling horsemen and foot
passengers. An Arab of M. G érard's
acquaintance, in such a rencontre, dismounted,
took off the bridle and saddle, and ran away,
carrying on his head the equipment of his
horse, which was immediately strangled before
his eyes. But things do not always turn
out so well; and, whether on foot or mounted,
travellers seldom get clear off, if they are
once in the presence of the black-maned lion.
There are a great many modern instances of
Arabs being devoured by lions; the following
is quoted because it is well known to all the
inhabitants of Constantine:—

Several years before the French occupation
of that city, amongst the numerous malefactors
with whom the prisons overflowed,
were two persons condemned to death,— two
brothers, who were to be executed the next
day. They were highway robbers, hamstringers,
and cut-throats, of whose courage
and strength the most surprising tales were
related. The Bey, fearing they would make
their escape, ordered them to be shackled
together; that is, each of them had one foot
riveted in the same ring of solid iron. No