masquerade in popular report as tigers would
afford him better sport than he had yet enjoyed in Syria. So when the
settled weather came we went to look for them.

For my part I take pleasure in long expeditions with a gun, though
nothing in the way of slaughter come of them. My lack of keenness at
the proper moment has been the scorn and the despair of native guides
and hunters. Once, in Egypt, at the inundation of the Nile, I had been
rowed for miles by eager men, and had lain out an hour upon an islet
among reeds, only to forget to fire when my adherents whispered as
the duck flew over, because the sun was rising and the desert hills
were blushing like the rose against a starry sky. I had chased a
solitary partridge a whole day among the rocks of En-gedi without the
slightest prospect of success; and in the Jordan valley I had endured
great hardships in pursuit of wild boar without seeing one. It was the
lurking in wild places at unusual hours which pleased me, not the
matching of my strength and skill against the might of beasts. I have
always been averse to every sort of competition. This I explain that
all may know that, though I sallied forth with glee in search of
savage creatures, it was not to kill them.

We set out from our village on a fine spring morning, attended by
Rashid, my servant, and a famous hunter of the district named
Muhammad, also two mules, which carried all things necessary for our
camping out, and were in charge of my friend's cook, Amin by name. We
rode into the mountains, making for the central range of barren
heights, which had the hue and something of the contour of a lion's
back. At length we reached a village at the foot of this commanding
range, and asked for tigers. We were told that they were farther on.
A man came with us to a point of vantage whence he was able to point
out the very place--a crag in the far distance floating in a haze of
heat. After riding for a day and a half we came right under it, and at
a village near its base renewed inquiry. 'Oh,' we were told, 'the
tigers are much farther on. You see that eminence?' Again a mountain
afar off was indicated. At the next village we encamped, for night
drew near. The people came out to inspect us, and we asked them for
the tigers.

'Alas!' they cried. 'It is not here that you must seek them. By Allah,
you are going in the wrong direction. Behold that distant peak!'

And they pointed to the place from which we had originally s