346 
THE MAMMALS OE EGYPT. 
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 {Geranium 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, 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 drops it carefully over the thorns in 
the ring, which being close together hold it up, so that soon nothing can be 
seen of the thorns. The use of the dried dung is to hold up the sand which 
hides the trap. The hemp rope, now made into a slip-noose, is put round the 
top ring, and the stick to which it is attached buried in the sand. The whole 
is now carefully covered with sand. One of the shikaris laid his traps so successfully 
that it was almost impossible to find one again unless a Gazelle was caught in it. 
The marks like those of a Gazelle made by the fingers over the trap add to the 
deception. It is curious to remark that a Gazelle will rarely walk over an impression 
left by either beast or man in the sand. 
“ When the Gazelle comes in the evening to feed, its foot slips through the 
top ring in the centre where the thorns meet, and so to the bottom of the hole. 
The top ring is now fixed round the Gazelle’s leg, at the height of the depth of 
the hole, the spiky thorns entering the skin. This ring also holds up the hemp rope, 
which the Gazelle, in endeavouring to kick off the thorny ring that pricks it, draws 
tight, generally over the knee. 
“The Gazelle starts off, dragging after it the date-stick attached to the rope. The 
swinging stick makes it impossible for the animal to get away at any pace, as, 
twisting round one leg or the other, it throws the Gazelle to the ground continually. 
