Story of the Bible Animals: A Description of the Habits and Uses of every living Creature mentioned in the Scriptures, with Explanation of Passages in the Old and New Testament in which Reference is made to themWood, J. G. (John George)
Religion
Story of the Bible Animals: A Description of the Habits and Uses of every living Creature mentioned in the Scriptures, with Explanation of Passages in the Old and New Testament in which Reference is made to them
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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