MEMOIR OF BURCKHARDT. 69 



upon the leaves like dew, and is gathered from 

 them, or from the ground under the tree, which is 

 often found completely covered with it. According 

 to some, its colour is brownish ; others said it was 

 of a grayish hue ; it is very sweet when fresh, but 

 turns sour after being kept for two days. The 

 Arabs eat it like honey (or make cakes of it), with 

 butter ; they also put it into their gruel, and use it 

 in rubbing their water-skins, in order to exclude 

 the air." 



The fields around Tafyle are frequented by im- 

 mense numbers of crows; the eagle (Rakham) is 

 very common in the mountains, as are also wild 

 boars. Large herds of mountain goats are met Avith, 

 which pasture in flocks of forty or fifty together, 

 and are killed by the inhabitants for their flesh and 

 their huge knotty horns, which they sell to the 

 Hebron merchants, who carry them to Jerusalem, 

 where they are worked into the handles of knives 

 and daggers. They are the Steinbock or Bouquetin 

 of the Swiss and Tyrol Alps ; and when pursued, 

 it is said they will throw themselves from a height 

 of fifty feet or more upon tlieir heads, without re- 

 ceiving any injury. About Kerek and Mount Seir, 

 the bird Katta (or Telrao alkatta)^ a species of 

 partridge, is very abundant; they congregate in 

 such large flocks, that the Arab boys often kill two 

 or three of them at a time, merely by thro\ving a 

 stick among them. " It is not improbable," says 

 Burckhardt, " that this bird is the Seloua or quail 

 of the children of Israel." 



