458 



NATURAL HISTORY OF ARABIA. 



the Sumana ; the Salva, which he understood to be the 

 rail, a bird of passage which frequents some districts ; the 

 Thar el Hind, remarkable for its gilded plumage, and 

 supposed from the name to come from India ; the Achjal, 

 famous for the beautiful feathers with which the High- 

 landers adorn their bonnets : so careful is the bird about 

 their growth, that it is said to bore a hole in the nest to 

 preserve them uninjured. Game is abundant in Arabia, 

 especially on the plains along the Euphrates, the ancient 

 kingdom of Nimrod, that " mighty hunter before the 

 Lord." The inhabitants, however, regard neither the 

 exercise nor the amusement of fowling. With a people 

 living in a climate where animal food is injurious to 

 health game is despised. The precepts of the Koran are 

 inimical to the diversion of field-sports. The labours of 

 the huntsman or the fowler are lost, and his prey becomes 

 impure, if he has but neglected the repetition of one short 

 prayer when he killed the animal ; if it has not lost the 

 exact quantity of blood required by the law ; if the beast 

 or bird struggled with any remains of life after it was 

 shot ; or if it fell upon a place which was either inhabited 

 or in any manner defiled. These causes will explain why 

 the Arabs have an apathy or aversion for those sports of 

 which savages in other countries are so passionately fond. 

 From the nature of the climate, it cannot be expected 

 that Arabia possesses any great variety of waterfowl. 

 In marshy places, however, cranes, herons, snipes, storks, 

 swans, pelicans, and a beautiful species of the plover, are 

 found. Sea-birds are numerous on the coasts, especially 

 those of the Red Sea, which is copiously stored with fish. 

 Besides gulls, of which there are a variety of species, 

 Niebuhr saw in one of the islands of that gulf pelicans 

 which had built nests, and laid eggs as large as those of 

 the common goose. 



Reptiles. The Danish travellers never met with the sea- 

 tortoise ; but the land-tortoise was not uncommon. In seve- 

 ral places they saw the peasants bring them in loads to the 

 market. The Eastern Christians eat them in Lent, and 

 drink their blood with great relish. The lizard-tribe are nu- 

 merous. On the coast and in the valleys of Petrsea, Burck- 

 hardt saw a species called dhob, that has a scaly yellow- 

 coloured skin, of which the natives make tobacco-pouches- 

 The largest are about eighteen inches in length, and the 

 tail measures nearly one-half. Another sort of lizard i 





