434 



NATURAL HISTORY OF ARABIA. 



Swiss) abound in the alpine districts, especially among 

 the cliffs of Sinai, where they are hunted by the Be- 

 douins. Their flesh is excellent, and has nearly the 

 same flavour as that of deer. In the plains dogs are em- 

 ployed 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 

 take to flight. They pasture in herds of forty or fifty to- 

 gether, having a leader who keeps watch ; and on any sus- 

 picious sound, odour, or object, he makes a noise, which is 

 a signal to the flock to make their escape. The chase of 

 the beden, 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 pur- 

 sued they would throw themselves from a height of fifty 

 or sixty feet upon their heads without receiving any in- 

 jury. The Arabs make long circuits to surprise them, 

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

 morning 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 plentiful, 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 mis- 

 siles to which they are exposed. The more orthodox, 

 however, object to dress or eat them until they have un- 

 dergone the operation of hulaul, or being made lawful ;-"- 

 a ceremony which is performed by cutting the throat 

 with the neck turned towards the Holy City. Forskal 

 mentions several wild animals of which he knew nothing 

 except what he learned from the indistinct accounts of the 

 natives. The jcear was said, to resemble the ass in shape 

 and size, and the flesh is reckoned excellent food. The 

 bakar wash, from the vague descriptions given by the 

 Arabs, seemed to be the wild-ox. They mentioned an- 

 other quadruped of a similar form, which was without 

 horns, and fed only by night. One of the most singular 

 of these anonymous animals was described as resembling 

 a cat, which fed on grass and was eaten as a great deli- 



