Each hunter should take only one woollen or cotton shirt, and one pair of woollen trousers. He winds round his neck and ears a kind of thin stuff called in the desert _haouli_, and fastens it with his camel-rope. His feet are protected by sandals attached by cords, but he also puts on light gaiters [_trabag_]. He takes neither rifle, nor pistol, nor powder. His only weapon is a club of wild olive or tamarisk, four or five feet long and terminating in a very heavy knob. The party do not start until they have ascertained from travellers, or caravans, or from messengers sent forward for that purpose, where a large number of ostriches are collected at one point. These birds are generally met with in places where there is a good deal of grass, and where rain has recently fallen. According to the Arabs, whenever the ostrich sees the lightnings flash and a thunder storm coming on, it immediately hastens in that direction, however distant it may be, for it thinks nothing of going ten days on the stretch. In the desert it is proverbially said of a man who is particularly careful in tending his flocks and supplying them with what is necessary, that "he is like the ostrich—where he sees the lightning flash, he is there." The start is made in the morning. At the end of one or two days' march, when the hunters have arrived near to the spot where they were told to look for ostriches, and where tracks are observable, they halt and bivouac. On the morrow two intelligent servants, stripped to the skin, and wearing nothing but a handkerchief round their loins, are sent forward to reconnoitre. They take with them a goat's-skin bag suspended from the side, and a small quantity of bread, and walk on until they come upon the ostriches, which usually keep to the high ground. As soon as they have sighted them, they lie down and observe their movements; and then, while one remains, the other returns to the camp, and says that he has seen thirty, forty, sixty ostriches—it is alleged that _djeliba_ or troops to that number are really to be met with. At certain times, and especially when mating, the ostriches are seldom found more than three or four couples together.