206 
GAME. 
The antelope is the most common animal of the deer kind in Persia, 
as it is in Arabia and Africa. This is probably the which Xeno¬ 
phon enumerates among the wild animals, which the Ten Thousand 
used to hunt in their passage through Syria although Mr. Spelman 
has translated it roe deer. The Persians call it ahoo, but Hafiz in one of 
his odes compares it to his coy mistress by the Arabic name of gazal f, 
which has been adopted, by the French in gazelle. :|: Ahoo-chesm, ante¬ 
lope-eyed, is a common epithet in Persia, and indeed is very appro¬ 
priate to describe the full jet black eye of the Persian women. 
The Persians pretend that they have dogs, and moreover horses 
which can come up with them ; but that is very much to be doubted, 
although in their paintings of hunting matches, they frequently repre¬ 
sent the King on the full speed of his horse, putting his spear through 
an antelope. If they do catch them, it must be by relays, as has al¬ 
ready been related of their mode of hunting the wild ass. I must 
mention as an instance of the dexterity of Persian horsemen, that 
when w'e were near Komesha we saw one of the servants of our 
Mehmandar shoot a young antelope, with a single ball, from off his 
saddle, whilst his horse was on the full gallop. 
The bustards which we hunted are also most probably the ult%g of 
Xenophon, for we found them to possess the same qualities which he 
describes, viz. making short flights, and becoming soon tired. They are 
a very difficult bird to approach with a gun, and we agreed that the best 
mode of hunting them was to ride at them on horseback. The Persians 
call this bird ahoo bareJi, or young antelope. This is not the only bird 
which they designate by the name of a beast, for the ostrich they call 
the sJiuter morgh, or the camel bird. In the latter case the designation 
*■ Anab. lib. 1. c. 5. 
■j" \jVc wlu' y ^ )j^j 
O western breeze, say kindly to that tender fawn, you have driven me to the mountains 
and deserts. 
:j: See Buffon, vol. x. art. Gazelle. 
