54 
Tih, the Arabs said that, after a good rainy season, large num- 
bers come there. 
The Arabs speak of three kinds, viz.:—1. 22 Rim (antelope 
addax). 2. El Edam (A. leucoryx). 3. El’ Afar, which I 
cannot satisfactorily identify. 
The tongue of an antelope must be an invaluable charm, for if 
it be dried and powdered, and then given to a woman who hen- 
pecks her husband, it will ensure her future good behaviour ! 
Goat, Ar. ma’az f. ma’azeh or anz. A he-goat (either wild or 
tame) is also called ¢aés. In mountainous districts, large herds 
of goats are kept by the Arabs, chiefly for their milk and hair, 
which is used for making tents and sacking. The Arabs more 
usually eat a kid thana lamb on the occasion of a feast, and 
always a male. Full-grown animals are seldom killed. There 
are several varieties of goats from the upright eared kind to the 
Syrian goat with pendant ears, 12-14 inches long. That usually 
seen in the desert has ears slightly drooping and rather curling 
up at the top. 
Horse: the generic term in Arabic, A“%er/ ; a horse, Aisa (in 
Morocco ’owd) ; a mare, favs ; a colt, mohrah. 
Ss Ade is a thorough-bred Arab, Tradition says that the Devil 
will never enter a tent in which an az is kept. 
Hejjin ; a crossed horse. (The term is explained under the 
head ‘‘ Camel.”’) 
Berdhiin is a pack-horse with foreign sire and dam, 
Kadish is a badly-bred berdhiin. 
The Bedawin reckon seven principal breeds of horses, which 
are as follows :— 
1. Musalsal, which ought to be thin-crested, with short white 
stockings, red-eyed, short-coated, full in the barrel, and long- 
winded. 
. Haikali. 
. Sharthar. 
. Hareifish, a breed well known in Syria. 
Tubal. 
I: 
. Kumeit. These horses are usually bay, with black points, 
and ought, say the Arabs, to have a very fine muzzle ; head thin, 
and well set on ; upright, small ears ; conspicuous white star on 
the forehead ; round quarters, and to be well ribbed up; witha 
short or rat tail. They add, a well-bred horse is known by 
having the tail thick at the root, and carried well out. : 
The favourite colours are chestnut, gray, dun, black, and dark 
bay. The Prophet is related to have pronounced the following 
dicta :—‘‘ The best horses are black with white foreheads, and 
a white upper lip; next to these a black horse with a star, 
and three white stockings; next a bay with these marks.” 
‘ Prosperity is with sorrel horses.” The same authority judged 
shikdl, i.e, having the right-fore and left-hind feet white, to be 
the sign of a bad horse. 
The first man who tamed and rode a horse is said to have been 
Ishmael. The first horse appeared when Adam sneezed on first 
awaking into life (cf. the story of the cat.) 
Hyzena (7. striata) Ar. Dhaba’, also (in Sinai) Arkudha. 
This animal is found throughout the desert and Palestine. It 
is a cowardly beast, feeding chiefly on carrion, and is conse- 
quently little feared by the natives ; as I have before mentioned, 
the Ghawarineh eat it. It is said to change its sex yearly; the 
same fable is told of hares. 
Jackal, Ar. /é2?Awz?, or in Syria Wadwi, in Morocco Deeb 
and Taaleb Yusuf. These animals are not found in the desert, 
but are common in the cultivated parts of Egypt and Palestine, 
where their weird cry is very frequently heard, beginning just 
after sunset. They are timid beasts, and do little damage, except 
in the vineyards, where they commit great ravages, being ex- 
ceedingly fond of grapes. 
Ibex (Capra beden), Ar. Bedan (from bed7:, a body : probably 
so called as being the largest game in Sinai), the correct Arabic 
is waa/; this is the name given to them north of Damascus. 
Some travellers have called them Zizj/a/, but the word is not 
Arabic, and is only used by the Sinaitic Bedawin when speaking 
to Europeans, ‘‘ poor simpletons,” as they politely put it, ‘‘ who 
don’t understand Arabic.” The derivation of this word I am 
quite unable to determine. Among themselves the Bedawin 
speak of the buck as Gedan, and the doe as Azz (she-goat), and 
the kids as Dalit. A male in his first year is called Fenaigilt ; 
after this he is distinguished by the length of his horns ; thus in 
his second year he is called Adu Shibrain, the father of two 
spans ; in his third, 7%eathz ; in his fourth, Rwdai ; in his fifth, 
Ahammasi ; and they add that the horns never exceed five spans 

Rot 
Rusa 
NATURE 


[May 18, 1871 

inlength, which I believe to be true, for on measuring the lage 
pair that I have ever seen, I found them to be just 5 spans (about — 
41 inches) long. The term gar/mi (red) is applied in a general 
way, much as we speak of red deer. These animals are found — 
in Sinai and on both sides of the Dead Sea. I have reason to 
believe that those near Palmyra are a different variety. 5 
Jerboa, Ar. Yerbuah, also Dirs or Dars,and sometimes Za 
rumath (the lord of the little lance). There are several kinds of | 
jerboas and desert rats ; some of them are only found amongst 
the rock, others only burrow in the sand and gravel. Opinio 
is divided amongst the Arabs as to whether the jerboa is lawful 
for food or not ; some eat it, but others reject it as being ‘‘a creep- 
ing thing.” The Arabs say that they never drink, and believe 
that they live in communities, and appoint a sheikh, whom, how- 
ever, they unhesitatingly kill should his rule not suit them, 
There is an Arabic proverb about a deceitful man: ‘‘ Heacts” 
like a jerboa.” This is said with reference to the ground outs 
side a jerboa’s hole, which, though seemingly solid, is really 
undermined, and gives way when trodden upon. % 
Leopard (felis /eopardus), Ar. Nimr, occasionally called in 
Sinai G7é/é7* (corruption of the Turkish Aog/dz), the cubs are 
called Weshek, In the more secluded and inaccessible mountains 
of Sinai these animals are far from rare, and in a former visit to 
that country I was told that eleven camels had been killed by 
them during the preceding year in the district lying between 
Senned and W. Nasb. Like the hyrax the leopard is said to 
have been formerly a man changed into his present shape for per- 
forming his ablutions before prayer in milk, thus despising and 
diverting from their proper uses the good gifts of God. 
Leopards are tolerably abundant on the shores of the Dead 
Sea ; their tracks were here mistaken by M. de Saulcy for those 
of the lion, which animal is, however, quite extinct in 
Palestine and the Tih. 
The Bedawin assert that young leopards are born with a snake 
round their necks, <nd that when a leopard is ill he cures himself 
by eating mice. Their fat is used medicinally, and their hair is 
burnt as a charm to drive away scorpions and centipedes. 
Lizard. The larger lizards, especially the Uromastix spinipes, 
are called in Arabic Dfadd, and the smaller Hardhun. The 
Bedawin say that the former lays seventy eggs and even more, 
resembling pigeons’ eggs, and that the young are at first quite 
blind. They are believed to be very long lived, indeed I have 
heard 700 years assigned as the term of their existence. By 
some tribes they are eaten, but are generally thought unclean. 
The Syrians curse them freely, for they say that they mock the 
devotions of the true believers, Certainly the way in which they 
jerk their bodies up and down is not unlike a caricature of the 
Muslim prostrations. 
The dried bodies of some of the Skinks or Sand-lizards (Ar. 
Sakankur) are much sought after as an aphrodisiac throughout 
the East. The particular kind in vogue is found in Nejed, and 
large quantities are brought by the Hajj caravans, 
Owl, Ar. Boomeh, This bird is in some places regarded 
with veneration on account of a tradition which says that the 
souls of men appear on their tombs in the form of owls, Iam 
told that they are sometimes used by fowlers as decoys. 
Pigeon, Ar. Hamdm ; wild-pigeon, Yemdm. In Egypt there 
are enormous numbers of pigeons who live in towers specially 
built forthem. They are chiefly kept for their dung, which is 
very valuable as manure, and largely exported. 
Most mosques are tenanted by pigeons, and not unfréquently a 
sum of money is left by some pious Moslem to buy corn for them. 
At Jerusalem they are especially numerous, whence the Arabic 
proverb, ‘‘Safer than the pigeons of the Harem.” The 
mourning of doves is as frequently alluded to in Eastern as it 
is in Western poetry. 
Quail, usually called in Arabia Swmmana, or Selwa. I only 
met with one specimen in the Tih, and that was called by the 
natives Firveh. There isa tradition that the first instance of meat 
becoming corrupt and stinking was when the children of Israel 
stored up the flesh of the miraculous quails contrary to the_ 
commands of the Almighty. 
Raven, There are three species of this bird scattered over the 
Desert, viz., Corvus corax, C. umbrinus, and C. affinis; all of 
these are called by the Arabs Ghordd. They are generally found 
near a herd of camels, and may often be seen perched on the 
backs of these animals searching for ticks. Their chief food 
consists of reptiles and insects, but any dead or dying animal 
* Giblan is the name of the chief of the Nimr (leopard) family of the 
Adwan Arabs in Moab, é 
