ESSAFI ENCOUNTERS A WOUNDED MAARIFF. 171 



same place, and then were witnesses of an uncommonly 

 pretty spectacle, that we preferred to see played out rather 

 than cut short by the rifle. The maariff allowed Essafi 

 to come quite close to it, and then charged him with 

 great ferocity, making Essafi turn on his heel and run 

 for his life for a few moments, until it was too exhausted 

 to follow him. In vain did Essafi try to get round it 

 to hamstring it ; the maariff, with its unpleasantly 

 pointed horns, was master of the situation, until Essafi 

 by degrees enticed it to follow him to a tree, when, 

 standing close behind the trunk, he allowed the maariff 

 to charge him again, and as it did so he dodged round 

 the tree, and wifh one spring his sword had severed the 

 tendon, and his enemy was vanquished ; and then with 

 one thrust he sent his favourite weapon far into the chest. 

 On our witnessing the terrific force with which the 

 maariff threw back its head when it thought Essafi was 

 within reach of its horns, we could not help thinking 

 what an escape dimming had from more serious injury 

 from this species of antelope. 



Vivian, wishing to preserve the skin of the neck with 

 the head of his first specimen of this rare antelope, gave 

 an order that the throat was not to be cut across as 

 usual by his hunter, and the result is the Arabs will not 

 eat the animal. Now that they are well supplied with 

 meat, dried or otherwise, their religious scruples are 

 cropping up again, but they never stand in their way 



