Bible animals : $b being a description of every living creature mentioned in the Scripture, from the ape to the coral.Wood, J. G. (John George)
Religion
Bible animals : $b being a description of every living creature mentioned in the Scripture, from the ape to the coral.
Wood, J. G. (John George)
Animals in the Bible; Nature in the Bible
As a rule, however, the Gazelle does not desire to resist, and prefers
its legs to its horns as a mode of insuring safety. So fleet is the
animal, that it seems to fly over the ground as if propelled by
volition alone, and its light, agile frame is so enduring, that a fair
chase has hardly any prospect of success. Hunters, therefore, prefer a
trap of some kind, if they chase the animal merely for food or for the
sake of its skin, and contrive to kill considerable numbers at once.
Sometimes they dig pitfalls, and drive the Gazelles into them by
beating a large tract of country, and gradually narrowing the circle.
Sometimes they use nets, such as have already been described, and
sometimes they line the sides of a ravine with archers and spearmen,
and drive the herd of Gazelles through the treacherous defile.
These modes of slaughter are, however, condemned by the true hunter,
who looks upon those who use them much in the same light as an English
sportsman looks on a man who shoots foxes. The greyhound and the
falcon are both employed in the legitimate capture of the Gazelle, and
in some cases both are trained to work together. Hunting the Gazelle
with the greyhound very much resembles coursing in our own country,
and chasing it with the hawk is exactly like the system of falconry
that was once so popular an English sport, and which even now shows
signs of revival.
It is, however, when the dog and the bird are trained to work together
that the spectacle becomes really novel and interesting to an English
spectator.
As soon as the Gazelles are fairly in view, the hunter unhoods his
hawk, and holds it up so that it may see the animals. The bird fixes
its eye on one Gazelle, and by that glance the animal's doom is
settled. The falcon darts after the Gazelles, followed by the dog, who
keeps his eye on the hawk, and holds himself in readiness to attack
the animal that his feathered ally may select. Suddenly the falcon,
which has been for some few seconds hovering over the herd of
Gazelles, makes a stoop upon the selected victim, fastening its talons
in its forehead, and, as it tries to shake off its strange foe, flaps
its wings into the Gazelle's eyes so as to blind it. Consequently, the
rapid course of the antelope is arrested, so that the dog is able to
come up and secure the animal while it is struggling to escape from
its feathered enemy. Sometimes, though rarely, a young and
inexperienced hawk swoops down with such reckless force that it misses
the forehead of the Gazelle, and impales itself upon the sharp horns,
just as in England the falcon is apt to be spitted on the bill of the
heron.
The most sportsmanlike mode of hunting the Gazelle is to use the
falcon alone; but for this sport a bird must possess exceptional
strength, swiftness, and intelligence. A very spirited account of such
a chase is given by Mr. G. W. Chasseaud, in his "Druses of the
Lebanon:"--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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