Ostrich hunting, in the Sahara, makes numerous and excellent marksmen, who practice at hitting nothing but the head, in order that the blood may not stain the feathers. A marksman of note always carries a chaplet of talismans behind the lock of his rifle, and his name is quoted in the tribes. Among the defenders of Zaatcha there was more than one crack hunter of ostriches.
The ostrich drinks every fifth day if water is to be had: if not, it can endure thirst for a long time. Ostrich hunting is a very profitable sport. The Arabs say of a successful speculation: "It is an excellent transaction—as good as an ostrich hunt."
The Arab to whom I am indebted for these particulars is an Oulad-Sidi-Shikh, named Abd-el-Kader-Mohammed-ben-Kaddour, a professional hunter. According to him, the country for ostriches is comprised in a triangle contained by lines drawn from Insalah to Figuig, from South to North—from Figuig to Sidi-Okba, from West to East—and from Sidi-Okba to Ouargla, from North to South.
GAZELLE HUNTING.
The chace of the gazelle is not, like that of the ostrich, at the same time a lucrative and a toilsome enterprise—it is merely an exercise, a pastime, a party of pleasure. The gazelle is barely worth a franc or a franc and a half, and it is not for such a valueless prey that an Arab will prepare, train, fatigue, and even risk the loss of a horse,—as frequently happens in ostrich hunting. Besides, in this species of sport, the chief credit belongs neither to the man nor to the horse,—for whom it is, properly speaking, nothing more than a promenade—but to the greyhound, that other companion of the noble of the desert, of whom I shall have occasion to speak hereafter.
If the gazelle be of little value, it is because it is by no means rare. Everywhere, but above all in Sersou, is found the sine, or diminutive gazelle; in the Tell and in mountainous districts, the ademi, the largest kind; and in the Sahara, the rime, or intermediate species, distinguished by the whiteness of its belly and thighs, and the length of its horns. All these varieties alike travel in herds of four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, a hundred; and not unfrequently as many as two or three hundred are found herding together. At a distance they may be taken for the flocks of an emigrating tribe. A herd of gazelles is called a djeliba.
Gazelle hunting is not a sport exclusively reserved for horsemen. In the incessant and daily wanderings of the Sahara tribes, as soon as the camp is fixed near a fountain or river, the hunters set off in great numbers, taking care to go up the wind. The gazelles possessing a very fine sense of smell, the scent of the men wafted on the wind would soon put them to flight. The hunter advances under shelter of bush after bush, and from time to time imitates the cry of the gazelle. The latter stops, looks about on all sides, and seeks the companion it supposes to have gone astray. The hunter approaches close to it, and may even be seen without scaring it away. At a proper distance he pulls the trigger, and rarely misses his aim, "unless a spell cast upon his rifle causes it to hang fire, and prevents it from going off during the whole day." At the sound of the report the entire herd dashes off at top speed, but at the end of a league or a league and a half, their fright has passed off with the recollection of the cause of their alarm, and they again halt and go on browsing as before.
The genuine hunter is a hardy, indefatigable walker. Experience teaches him in what direction the herd is likely to stop, and to that he bends his steps. Again he conceals himself and repeats the former manœuvre. In this manner, in the course of the day, he can bring down three or four gazelles, which his friends or servants will lift up and carry to the camp in triumph. In the spring time, when the djedi, or fawns, sleep amidst the alfa, having taken their fill of the milk of their mother, it is easy to catch a dozen or fifteen of them in a single morning. It is the old hind that generally betrays them.
But not such is the sport of persons of distinction, of the real horsemen. What the great chiefs affect is to hunt them on horseback. A dozen or fifteen cavaliers take the field, accompanied by their servants, and seven or eight greyhounds, and carrying with them tents and provisions. Directing their course towards a place where gazelles are usually found, they ride forward at a venture. When a herd of gazelles appears in the distance, they proceed towards it, covering their advance as much as possible by means of shrubs and the inequalities of the ground. When they get within a quarter of a league, the attendants who hold the hounds in leash, squeezing their throats to prevent them from giving tongue, dismount and let them slip. No sooner do they find themselves free than they go off like an arrow, the Arabs stimulating them to still greater speed by shouts and passionate invocations: "My brother! my lord! my friend! there they are!" The horsemen follow leisurely at a gentle gallop, so as not to be quite thrown out; and behind them comes the baggage. The best greyhounds will not fairly overtake the herd until after a course of two or three leagues. Then, at last, the spectacle becomes full of incident and interest. A thoroughbred greyhound picks out the finest animal of the herd, and springs forward. A contest of agility and swiftness ensues. The gazelle doubles, now to the right, now to the left, bounds forwards and backwards, leaps even over the greyhound, and strives sometimes to throw him out, sometimes to strike him with its horns. Its windings and doublings are all to no purpose. Ardent and indefatigable, its enemy hangs close upon its track. When on the point of being pulled down it utters plaintive cries, and chants, as it were, its death song—song of death to it, but of victory to the greyhound who seizes it by the back of the neck, and snaps the vertebral column with its teeth. The gazelle falls to the ground, and lies motionless at the feet of the victor, until the hunters come up and cut the throat of the still living animal.