"On the eastern frontiers of Syria," says Burckhardt, "are several places allotted for the hunting of gazelles: these places are called 'masiade' [perhaps more properly, 'maṣyedehs']. An open space in the plain, of about one mile and a half square, is enclosed on three sides by a wall of loose stones, too high for the gazelles to leap over. In different parts of this wall, gaps are purposely left, and near each gap a deep ditch is made on the outside. The enclosed space is situated near some rivulet or spring to which in summer the gazelles resort. When the hunting is to begin, many peasants assemble, and watch till they see a herd of gazelles advancing from a distance towards the enclosure, into which they drive them: the gazelles, frightened by the shouts of these people and the discharge of fire-arms, endeavour to leap over the wall, but can only effect this at the gaps, where they fall into the ditch outside, and are easily taken, sometimes by hundreds. The chief of the herd always leaps first: the others follow him one by one. The gazelles thus taken are immediately killed, and their flesh is sold to the Arabs and neighbouring Felláḥs."[213] Hunting the wild ass is among the most difficult sports of the Arabs and Persians. FOOTNOTES: [150] A pious Muslim generally sits at his meals with the right knee raised, after the example of the Prophet, who adopted this custom in order to avoid too comfortable a posture in eating, as tempting to unnecessary gratification. [151] Hist. Aegypt. Compend. 180-182. (Oxon. 1800.) [152] El-Maḳreezee's Khiṭaṭ: Account of the Khaleefehs' Palaces. [153] Mishkát el-Maṣábeeḥ, ii. 329. [154] Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys, 8vo. ed. i. 178, 179. [155] Price's Retrospect of Mahom. History, ii. 229. [156] Mishkát el-Maṣábeeḥ, ii. 339. [157] De Sacy, Chrestomathie Arabe, i. 125-131, Arabic text. [158] That is, a race-course for sallies of wit and eloquence on the subject of wine: the word "kumeyt" being used, in preference to more than a hundred others that might have been employed, to signify "wine," because it bears also the meaning of "a deep red horse." The book has been already quoted in these pages. [159] His name is not mentioned in my copy; but D'Herbelot states it to have been Shems-ed-Deen Moḥammad ibn-Bedr-ed-Deen Ḥasan el-Ḳáḍee; and writes his surname "Naouagi," or "Naouahi." [160] [Mr. Lane followed the usual custom of travellers of his day who wished to be intimate with the Egyptians, and took the name of Manṣoor Effendee. A letter from Bonomi to him, under this name, exists in the British Museum (25,658, f. 67), and has led the compilers of the Index to the Catalogue of Additions to the MSS., published in 1880, into the pardonable error of inventing an "Edward Mansoor Lane." S. L-P.] [161] Ḳur. ii. 216. [162] Ḳur. iv. 46. [163] Lev. x. 9. [164] Ḳur. v. 92. [165] Ḥalbet el-Kumeyt, chap. ix. [166] Ibid, khátimeh. [167] Ḥalbet el-Kumeyt, 1. 1.