392 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARABIA. 



them. On this account vast numbers of them are exported 

 to Egypt, Persia, and Syria, where itinerant jugglers make a 

 livehhood by exhibiting them to the people. The sandy 

 plains, and the valleys of the mountains, are stocked with 

 gazelles. So common is this beautiful creature, that as a 

 beast of chase, it furnishes amusement and food for the Arabs 

 of the desert, and supplies the poets with many of their finest 

 similitudes. On the Eastern frontier there are several places 

 allotted for the hunting of this animal, enclosed with a high 

 wall. Gaps are left, with a broad ditch on the outside, where 

 they are caught in hundreds while attempting to escape. 

 The rock-goats {Capra Ibex, the steinbok or bouquetin of the 

 Swiss) abound in the Alpine districts, especially among the 

 cliffs of Sinai, where they are hunted by the Bedouins. Their 

 flesh is excellent, and has nearly the same flavour as that of 

 deer. In the plains dogs are employed to catch them ; but 

 among the rocks it is difficult to come near them, as they 

 occasionally take a leap of twenty feet, and are so keen- 

 scented, that on the slightest change of wind they smell the 

 pursuer at a great distance, and lake to flight. They pas- 

 ture in herds of forty or fifty together, having a leader who 

 keeps watch ; and on any suspicious sound, odour, or object, 

 he makes a noise, which is a signal to the flock to make their 

 escape. The chase of the heden, as the wild-goat is called, 

 resembles that of the chamois of the Alps, and requires as 

 much enterprise and patience. Burckhardt was assured, that 

 when hotly pursued they would throw themselves from a 

 height of fifty or sixty feet upon their heads without receiving 

 any mjury. The Arabs make long circuits to surprise them, 

 and endeavour to come upon them late, or early in the morn- 

 ing when they feed. Their skins are made into water-bags, 

 and their long, large, knotty horns are sold to the merchants, 

 who carry them to Jerusalem, where they are made into 

 handles for knives and daggers. 



Hares are plentful, and hunted by the Arabs, who knock 

 them down with small sticks or clubs, which they throw to a 

 great distance, and with admirable dexterity. As the line 

 of a caravan sometimes extends nearly a mile in length, they 

 are often started in considerable numbers, and scarcely one 

 of them ever escapes the shower of missiles to which they 

 are exposed. The more orthodox, however, object to dress 

 or eat them until they have undergone the operation of hulaul. 



