"The chace disengages the mind from the cares by which it is harassed. It adds to the vigour of the intelligence, brings joyfulness, dissipates chagrin, and renders useless the science of the physicians by maintaining perpetual health in the human body.
"It forms good horsemen, for it teaches them to spring quickly into their saddles, to alight promptly on the ground, to rush a horse across rocks and precipices, to clear stones and bushes at full gallop, to push on without stopping, even though some part of the harness has been lost or broken.
"Every one who gives himself up to the chace, makes progress day by day in courage, and learns to despise accidents.
"To fully enjoy his favourite diversion, he withdraws from perverse people. He puts falsehood and calumny to the rout, escapes from the corruption of vice, and emancipates himself from those fatal influences which tinge our beards with gray, and burden us, before our time, with the weight of years.
"Days spent in the chace are not counted among the days of one's life."
In the Sahara, the chace is the sole occupation of the chiefs and rich people. When the rainy season sets in, the inhabitants of that region transport themselves to the shores of the small lakes formed by the rain; and, if game get scarce at one spot, they open up a new scene in their wandering life. A legend familiar to every Arab shows with what force the passion for the chace may seize upon the heart of an African.
A man of distinction fired at a gazelle and missed it. In a hasty moment, he took an oath that no food should come near his mouth until he had eaten the animal's liver. Twice again, he fired at the gazelle, and with no better success, but not the less did he continue the pursuit for the whole of that day. At nightfall his strength gave way; but true to his oath, he refused to take any nourishment. His servants, therefore, resumed the chace, which lasted for three days more. At last the gazelle was killed, and its liver brought to the dying Arab, who touched it with its lips and yielded up his last breath.
The Arabs hunt both on foot, and on horseback. A horseman who would chace the hare must take with him a greyhound, which is called slougui, from Slouguïa, a spot where they were originally produced from the coupling of she-wolves with dogs. The male slougui lives twenty years, the female twelve. Greyhounds that are able to run a gazelle down are rare. Few of them will give chace either to the hare or to the gazelle, even if those animals pass close to them. Their customary object of pursuit is the bekeur-el-ouhash, which they generally catch by the ham and pull to the ground. It is said that this animal, in trying to recover itself, falls forward on its head and is killed. Sometimes, the slougui seizes the bekeur-el-ouhash by the throat, and holds it until the hunter comes up. Many Arabs hunt this beast on horseback, and strike it from behind with a spear. It is also on horseback that they generally hunt the gazelle, which goes in herds. They select from among its companions the animal they intend to bring down, and shoot it without for a moment pulling up their horse, on which they started at full speed. There is an Arab proverb: "More forgetful than a gazelle." This pretty creature, in fact, appears to have the giddy brains as well as the soft, mysterious glance of woman. The gazelle, if missed, runs a little way further on, and again stops, without heeding the ball which, in another minute, will again seek its life. Some Arabs hunt this animal with the falcon, which is trained to strike at the eyes.
It is especially among the Arabs of the Eshoul country that this variety of sport chiefly prevails. I have there met with a small tribe, called the Es-Lib, who lived entirely on the products of the chace. Their tents were made of the skins of gazelles and of bekeur-el-ouhash; and their clothing, for the most part, was nothing but the skins of wolves. A member of this little tribe of hunters told me that when he went out to hunt he generally took with him an ass laden with salt. Each time he knocked over a gazelle, he cut its throat, opened the belly, and rubbed the entrails with salt, and then left it to dry on a bush. After a while he retraced his steps, and carried to his family all the animals that he had thus prepared, for in that district there are no beasts of prey to dispute with a hunter for his game. The Es-Lib are so accustomed to feed upon flesh, that the children threw away the biscuits I gave to them, never supposing that they were good to eat.
The hunt in ambush is often practised against both the male and female of the bekeur-el-ouhash. When the great heats have dried up the ponds in the desert, a hole is dug close to the springs whither they resort to drink, and they meet with their death while in the act of quenching their thirst. The chace that demands the greatest intrepidity is that of the lerouy, an animal resembling the gazelle, but larger, though without attaining the size of the bekeur-el-ouhash. The lerouy, which is likewise called the tis-el-djebel, or mountain goat, frequents rocks and precipices, among which it must be pursued on foot, amid a thousand perils. As these animals have very little speed, any ordinary dog can catch them easily if they descend into the plains. But they have a singular peculiarity, as I am assured. A lerouy closely pressed by hunters throws itself down a precipice a hundred cubits deep, and falls on its head without receiving any hurt. The age of the animal is known by the knobs on its horns—each knob indicating a year. Both the lerouy and the gazelle have two incisor teeth, but they have not those situated between the incisors and the canine teeth.