864 ON lodeb's gazelle in egypx. [Dee. 3, 



was a fine female, very white in colour. Not wishing to disturb 

 any others that might be near, I did not fire. We found, however, 

 that it was alone. At 12 o'clock or thereabouts we came upon 

 the skirt of the plateau, from which the Fayoum can be seen, and 

 here the shikaries decided to turn back, as they said we had passed 

 the " White G-azelle ground ;" so, after returning about two miles, 

 we set up the tents and waited for the evening, the sun being so 

 hot that it was impossible to continue our search. Two Arabian 

 greyhounds I had with me felt the heat especially. No sooner 

 were the camels on the ground than, going to the shady side, they 

 began to dig in the sand under the beasts in order to bury them- 

 selves away from the heat. 



During the afternoon the two shikaries constructed traps, which 

 we set in the evening. 



The Gazelle trap, except the small hemp-platted rope, is made 

 entirely from the date-palm. Taking the long leaves, the shikarie 

 first constructs by platting them together a deep ring, about 3 inches 

 in diameter and about 4 inches deep : it should, in fact, fit well into 

 a golf-hole and make its walls secure. He now takes an old stalk 

 from which the dates have been picked, and separating about 

 twenty of the fibres which compose it, and run its whole length, he 

 twists them into a rude bracelet about three inches in diameter. 

 Then taking three more fibres, in place of twine, he binds the ring 

 securely; the ring or bracelet has then a form much resembling a 

 diminutive " Eingold " ring. The shikarie now breaks off the 

 points of the date-thorns until he has about twenty-five of them 

 2 inches in length ; these he pushes through the fibrous sides of 

 the ring until all the points meet in the centre, so that when 

 finished this ring has much the appearance of a small sieve. All 

 the thorn-points overlap slightly in the centre of the ring. This 

 ring, holding all the thorns, the deep ring of platted leaves, and a 

 soft thick hemp rope, made by the Arab himself, by the ordinary 

 three-plat from raw hemp (this rope, being soft, not only binds 

 itself more securely to the Gazelle, but does not cut the skin when 

 drawn tight), attached to a date-stick about a yard in length, are 

 all the implements that an Arab requires to catch a Gazelle. 



Starting in the evening for the lower ground, which is studded 

 with small bushes (for when pitching the tents we purposely kept 

 at a good distance from the feeding-ground), we soon found spoor, 

 but none very promising ; a buck and two does had been there two 

 nights before. A small desert plant, much resembling our English 

 Red Cranesbill {Gemnium sanguineum), was pointed out to me by 

 the Arabs as a favourite food of the Gazelles. Finding a spot 

 where the spoor led to one of these plants, and the plant evidently 

 having been nibbled at, we decided to put a trap near it. The Arab 

 sat down and made a hole, using his deep ring to keep its sandy 

 walls intact, so that he now had a hole resembling exactly in size 

 and depth a golf -hole with basket-work sides, within four or five 

 inches of the plant. 



Taking now the thorny ring he places it on the hole, which it 

 should exactly cap. He now powders up some camel-dung and 



