The Horses of the Sahara and the Manners of the DesertDaumas, E. (Eugène)
History
The Horses of the Sahara and the Manners of the Desert
Daumas, E. (Eugène)
Arabian horse; Sahara
The _delim_, or male bird, when its throat is cut, especially if near
its young ones, moans in a lamentable manner, but the _reumda_, or
female, utters not a sound. When the ostrich is on the point of being
overtaken, it is so exhausted that, if the hunter is willing to spare
its life, it is easy for him to lead it away captive, guiding it with
his cudgel; for by that time it can scarcely walk. Immediately after
being bled, the bird is carefully skinned, so as not to spoil the
feathers, and the skin is stretched on a tree or on a horse. When the
camels arrive, salt is plentifully rubbed in.
The servants now light fires and prepare the pots, in which they boil
for a long time over a fierce fire all the fat of the bird. As soon as
it is reduced to a very liquid state, it is poured into a sort of
leather bottle formed of the skin stripped off from the thigh to the
foot, and strongly tied at the lower end; it would spoil if put into
skin taken from any other part of the body. The fat of an ostrich in
good condition ought to fill both its legs. When the bird is brooding,
it is very lean, and at that time its fat would certainly not fill both
legs; and it is, at that time, hunted only for the sake of its feathers.
The rest of the flesh is served up for the hunters' supper, seasoned
with flour and pepper.
The attendants having watered the horses and given them a feed of
barley, and the hunters having refreshed themselves, they hasten, no
matter how fatiguing the chace may have been, to return to the spot
where they left their baggage. There they remain forty eight hours to
rest their horses, on whom they bestow the greatest care. After that,
they regain their tents. Sometimes they send the produce of the chace to
the _douar_, whence the servants bring back a fresh supply of
provisions, and, on receiving favourable intelligence, they start on a
new expedition.
In the desert, the male bird is called _delim_; the female, _reumda_; a
one-year old, _ral_; over one year, _oulid gleub_; a two-year old,
_oulid bou gleubtin_; a three-year old, _garah_, at which age the bird
attains its full growth.
The fat of the ostrich is used in the preparation of food—of
kouskoussou, for instance—and it is likewise eaten with bread. The Arabs
also apply it as a remedy in many diseases. It is sold in the
market-place, and in the tents of the rich a store of it is often kept
to give away to the poor, as a medicine. It is not, however, by any
means expensive—one pot of ostrich grease being exchanged for only three
pots of butter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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