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 pups are weaned at the end of forty days, but are still fed with
goat's, or camel's milk, thickened with dates, or kouskoussou. In the
Sahara, the flocks are so numerous and milk so abundant, that it is not
at all surprising that wealthy Arabs, after having weaned their
greyhound pups, should set aside so many she-goats for their
nourishment. When the pups are three or four months old, their education
commences. The boys drive out of their holes the jerboa, or the rat
called _boualal_, and set the pups at them. The latter by degrees get
excited, dash after them at full speed, bark furiously at their holes,
and only give up the pursuit to begin another. At the age of five or six
months, they are assigned a prey more difficult to catch—the hare. Men
on foot lead the greyhound close to the form where the animal is
couched. Then, by a slight exclamation, they set the young dog, who
rushes at the hare, and soon acquires the habit of coursing with speed
and intelligence. From the hare, they pass to the young of the gazelle.
The Arabs approach the spot where these are lying near their mother, and
direct the attention of the greyhound to them. As soon as he is
thoroughly excited and rears up with impatience, they let him go. After
a few lessons of this kind, the greyhound understands perfectly what to
do, and begins to press forward resolutely in chace of the old hinds
themselves.
When a year old the greyhound has very nearly reached its full strength.
His scent is developed, and he follows the gazelle by its slot.
Nevertheless, he is kept under some restraint, and not until the age of
fifteen to eighteen months is he regularly allowed to hunt. From that
period, however, he is held in leash, and often with great difficulty;
for the Arabs say that when the greyhound scents the game, his muscular
power becomes so great that, if he stiffens himself upon his paws, a man
can hardly make him lift a leg. As soon as he sights a herd of thirty or
forty gazelles, he trembles with joy, and looks up at his master, who
cries to him: "Ah son of a Jew! thou canst not say this time that thou
didst not see them." The hunter then takes off his goat's-skin bag, and
pours a little water on the back and belly of the hound, who, in his
impatience, casts a suppliant eye on his master. At last, he is free and
bounds forward. Presently, he tries to hide himself, stoops down, and
follows a circuitous course until he is within an easy distance, when he
springs forward with all his might, and picks out for his victim the
finest male in the herd. When the hunter cuts up the gazelle, he throws
to the _slougui_ the flesh around the kidneys. If he were to offer him
the intestines, he would reject them with disdain.
The greyhound that cannot hunt at two years old, will never be able do
so. There is a saying to this effect,
A greyhound after two years
And a man after two fasts [fifteen years];
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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