HAWKING IN AFRICA. 137 



and spring within, sword in hand. Here I found seated 

 immovable in a circle, the Sheik, surrounded by a dozen of 

 his chief men. They read their fate, and never a hand 

 moved. In a quarter of an hour after, their heads were ranged 

 in regular order around the dish of still smoking couscoussou, 

 and our fifty horsemen entered their respective douars with 

 the day-dawn, driving before them immense flocks, and 

 loaded with valuable booty. 



" All this had passed without a shot, and almost without 

 noise, so that the douars near the smala of the Sheik learned 

 our attack too late to help him. 



" From that day, until the arrival of the French put an end 

 to our hostilities, many heads had fallen in both tribes, but I 

 never afterwards saw any other falcons flown than those we 

 cast off by the Ouled Mellegh." 



As can be easily seen by this recital, the nobles and war- 

 riors in Algeria, monopolize the right of hawking, and the 

 stranger will find it no very easy task to indulge in it. 



The tribes among whom the best falconers are found, are, 

 the Zmouls, Righa, Amers de Setif, and the wandering Arabs 

 who take up their winter quarters in the Sahara, and pass 

 the three other seasons in the high grounds around Constan- 

 tine. 



The Arabs seldom keep the falcons they have used during 

 the season, but generally let them loose at the end of 

 February, in order to begin with others in the succeeding 

 autumn. 



In some tribes, the niais falcon is used ; it is more easy 

 to feed and teach, but it is less courageous, and more subject 



