him comprehend the enjoyment which is the
recompense for the moral and physical fatigue
necessarily undergone by whoever exercises
such a profession as this, to him I would say:
The career is open to all; enter upon it
valiantly! But have nothing to do with the
covered hiding-places, the ambuscades in use
amongst the Arabs! Have nothing to do
with daylight sport, either alone, or in the
presence of people who will prevent your
feeling afraid! Wait for the night; and at
the first roar of the lion, set out, but set out
alone and on foot. If you do not meet with
the animal, begin again the following night, if
you can, and then the next, and then again the
next, till your expedition has come to its
dénouement. If you return (which I heartily
desire, in order that I may resign my
office to you), I promise you, in reward for
the trouble you have had, in the first place,
a perfect indifference about death, with
whom you will always be ready to enter into
alliance; and secondly, the esteem, the
affection, the gratitude, and more than that, of
a multitude of people who are, and will
remain, hostile to all your countrymen, and to
your religion; and, finally, recollections
which will infuse youth into your old age.
If you do not return (for which I shall be
extremely sorry, both on your account and
my own), you may be assured that on the
spot where the Arabs find your remains, they
will raise, not a mausoleum, as people call it
at home, but a heap of stones, on the summit
of which they will place broken pots, old iron,
cannon balls, in short a heap of things which
serve them in the place of epitaph, and which
signify, 'A man died here.' You ought to
know that amongst the Arabs, it is not enough
to wear moustaches on your lips, and a beard
on your chin, to be 'a man: ' and I can
assure you that this simple epitaph implies
more than many eulogistic phrases, and that,
for my own part, I desire no other."

This digression will be excused as a
transitionary interlude to the rest of M. Gérard's
story.

"The old cheik earnestly insisted at first,
that I should enter the douar, and then that
he should leave with me a few men, whose
looks betrayed that they were not anxious to
stop. I refused both propositions, and
persuaded him to retire with his people; for
the night was approaching, and the lions
might now come down at any moment. The
brave fellow unwillingly complied with rny
advice; and before leaving, asked my
permission to say the evening prayers in company
with his followers, in order, he said, that God
might watch over me during the night,
through the whole course of which no one in
the mountain would close their eyes, but
would anxiously await, both great and small,
for the news which my gun should tell them.
The prayer ended, the cheik came to me, and
said:

"' If it please God to hear our prayers, and
if you will cheer the spirits of those who
love you,— after you have killed, light the fire
which my men shall prepare directly; so
that, when our ears have heard the signal of
battle, our eyes may behold the token of
victory. I promise you we will answer you.'
I readily assented to Taieb's wish; and in
an instant an enormous pile was made, and so
well prepared that a match was all that was
wanted to set it on fire. While the cheik's
people were busy about the preparations,
with an ardour rare amongst the Arabs (who
are the incarnation of indolence), their
master remained close by my side, and
said —

"' If I thought you would not laugh at me,
I would give you a piece of advice.'

"'An old man's words,' I answered, 'are
always respected.'

"' Well, listen, my son. If the lions come
to-night, the seigneur with the great head
(the Arabs thus designate the adult male
lion) will march the first. Do not trouble
yourself about the others. The children are
already too big for the mother to concern
herself about them, and they all trust entirely
to their father; keep your eye, therefore, on
the seigneur with the great head. Do not
forget that, if your hour is come, it is he who
will kill you, and the others who will eat
you.' His people having called him at that
moment. ' Go on,' he shouted to them, ' I
will follow you directly.' Then, after an
inquiring glance around, as if he had some
confidential communication to make, he put
his mouth close to my ear, and said in a
whisper, 'He has stolen my handsomest
mare and ten bullocks.'

"' Who has robbed you of that?'  I asked,
in the same subdued tone of voice.

"' He! ' he answered, pointing with his fist
to the mountain slope.

"' But,' said I, beginning to lose patience,
'tell me the name of the thief.'

"' The seigneur with the great head.'

"The last words were spoken so low that I
could only catch the final syllables; but I
guessed the rest, and could not help laughing
when I recollected his recommendations. A
few minutes afterwards the cheik had
disappeared in the wood, and I was left alone
on the brink of the Oued-Cherf, in the
presence of the footsteps of five lions who had
been there only the day before, of the pile of
firewood prepared in their honour, and of the
mysterious den, over which the shades of
night already cast an impenetrable veil, which
my imagination amused itself with tearing
asunder, to count the claws and the teeth of
the seigneur with the big head and of the
family under his protection.

"Seated beneath an oleander which
commands the ford, I tried hard to discover with
ears and eyes the fire of a tent, the barking of
a dog on the hills, something, in short, which
should say to me, 'You are not utterly
alone.' But all was silent and dark around