Siwa : $b the oasis of Jupiter AmmonBelgrave, Charles Dalrymple, Sir
History
Siwa : $b the oasis of Jupiter Ammon
Belgrave, Charles Dalrymple, Sir
Siwah Oasis (Egypt)
they are used to catch pigeons, quail and other birds, besides hares.
Another sport which we went in for along the coast was coursing hares
with Silugi dogs. These dogs are gazelle hounds and came originally
from Arabia. There are now a certain number of them in Egypt, and all
the officials on the Western Desert keep one or two. Silugis are very
similar to greyhounds, generally white or pale coffee colour, with
feathery tails and long-haired, silky ears. They are very fast indeed,
but have no sense of scent, and hunt entirely by sight. They are rather
delicate and very nervous, and in most cases they show little affection
for human beings. At Matruh there was quite a pack which included a
couple of fox-hounds, silugis, several terriers—of sorts—and a
few nondescript bedouin pariahs. The Matruh pack specialized in foxes,
but at Sollum there were more hares than foxes. The desert hares are
rather smaller than the English ones, but they seemed to be faster.
The open country above the Scarp stretches over alternate patches
of hard stony ground, and strips covered with low vegetation where
a certain plant that smells like thyme predominates. Generally
two or three of us went hunting together, or if there were only
two Englishmen we took a couple of Sudanese syces or servants,
who thoroughly enjoy all forms of hunting, all mounted on ponies,
and accompanied by four or five dogs. We rode in extended order with
intervals of about thirty yards between each rider, the dogs generally
trotting along in front. Whoever raised a hare gave a wild yell and
galloped after it, “hell for leather,” the rest following. The
hounds would sight the hare and fling themselves in pursuit. Quite
often the hare got away before they saw it, or managed to reach a bit
of cover well ahead of the hounds, and then they would slacken down,
at a loss, and wait till the riders came up and scoured the country
round to put up the hare again. It sounds rather unsporting, but the
hare stood a very good chance; in fact, generally more than half of
them got away, and it gave one some splendid long gallops across the
country. Sometimes we would raise a gazelle, and give chase, but few
dogs or ponies can catch up a gazelle when it gets a little start and
is really moving. I think the scale of speed was, gazelle, silugi,
hare and ponies. It was a primitive form of hunting, but one liked
it none the less, and jugged hare made a welcome change in the menu.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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