The crows, wheeling with dismal cries over the dying wretch, often hack out his eyes before death relieves him of all pain. These corsairs of the air accompany the caravan as sharks accompany a vessel; for they reckon, like the tyrants of the seas, upon the tribute of the journey.
In a short time the dry atmosphere changes the corpse into a natural mummy, which, ‘grinning horribly a ghastly smile,’ seems to defy the desert. Perchance some future caravan passing along throws some pious dust upon the shrivelled body, but the wind soon uncovers it again, for the shifting desert will not even grant a burial to its victims. On every great caravan route such mummies protruding from the sand meet the eye of the traveller, telling him, in their mute but expressive language, ‘Such, stranger, may be thy fate to-morrow.’
The arid desert produces only a few plants and animals, but stamps them all with its own peculiar mark. From the tawny Bedouin to the worm scarcely distinguishable in the sand, it gives all its creatures the same dress, the same colour, which might justly be called the colour of the desert. It is the pale greyish-yellow tint which belongs as well to the gazelle as to the small lark of the sandy wastes. Among the birds there are no doubt many modifications of this general rule, and the deviations increase as the desert gradually merges into the more fertile steppes, but even here its characteristic mark is not to be mistaken.
A wandering desultory life is the lot of the children of the desert. The nourishment afforded them by their sterile home is too scanty for sedentary habits, and cannot be obtained without exertion. But Nature has endowed them with an activity and powers of endurance which distinguish them from many other animals, and enable them to exist where less hardy or less spirited beings would perish. Even such of them as originally did not belong to the desert, but since several generations have learnt to make it their home, such as the noble horse of the Bedouin, acquire the spirit it engenders. The same love of independence, the same attachment to their native haunts, animates all the inhabitants of the desert. Separated from their home they droop and pine away. The richest food affords the captive gazelle no compensation for the meagre herbage of the sandy waste; the widest space seems narrow when compared with its boundless extent.
Nothing can be more elegant than the figure of this beautiful antelope in the full unfettered freedom of its native wilds. Its slender but vigorous limbs are in the highest degree elastic; all its actions are animated and graceful. When the approach of a caravan surprises it in its solitude, it pricks up its ears, stretches forth its neck, and fixes an attentive gaze upon the strangers. Distrusting their intentions, it vaults with a few bounds over large stones or bushes, and then again stops, playfully waving its horns to and fro. When once it has been chased it becomes extremely wary, and on account of its amazing fleetness can only be taken by dint of the utmost perseverance and cunning. It is often seen in large groups, bounding across the desert with such extraordinary swiftness that it seems bird-like to skim over the surface. From time immemorial its elegant form and brilliant eye have played a conspicuous part in Oriental poetry. The Arab loves to compare the eye of his mistress with that of the gazelle—
‘Her eyes’ dark charm ’twere vain to tell,
But look on that of the gazelle,
It will assist thy fancy well’—
and ‘Thou art as graceful and as beautifully-shaped as a gazelle,’ is the highest compliment that can be paid to an Oriental beauty.
The chase of the gazelle is a favourite amusement of the inhabitants of the Saharian oases. On seeing a herd at a distance, they approach as cautiously as possible; and when about a mile distant, they unleash their greyhounds, who dart off with the rapidity of arrows, and are excited by loud cries to their utmost speed. Yet they only reach the flying herd after a long race; and now the scene acquires the interest of a drama. The best greyhound selects the finest gazelle for his prey, which uses all its cunning to avoid its pursuer, springing to the right, to the left, now forwards, then backwards, sometimes even right over the greyhound’s head; but all these zigzag evolutions fail to save it from its indefatigable enemy. When seized it utters a piteous cry, the signal of the greyhound’s triumph, who kills it with one bite in the neck.
When we consider the scanty vegetation of the Sahara, we cannot wonder that animal life is but sparingly scattered over its surface. The lion, so frequently misnamed ‘the king of the desert,’ only shows himself on its borders; and on asking the nomads of the interior whether it is ever seen in their parts, they gravely answer that in Europe lions may perhaps feed on shrubs or drink the air, but that in Africa they cannot exist without flesh and water, and therefore avoid the sandy desert. In fact, they never leave the wooded mountains of the Atlas, or the fruitful plains of the Soudan, to wander far away into the Sahara, where snakes and scorpions are the only dangerous animals to be met with. The snakes, which belong to the genus Cerastes, which is distinguished by two small horns upon the head, have a deadly bite, and are remarkable for their almost total abstinence from water.
Among the animals which inhabit those parts of the desert which are covered with prickly shrubs, we find hares and rabbits, hyænas and jackals, the hedgehog and the porcupine. Well-beaten paths, and here and there a scattered quill, lead to the hole which this proverbially fretful animal burrows in the sand. The hunters widen the entrance with their poniards or swords, until a hoarse, prolonged growl, and the peculiar noise which the enraged porcupine makes on raising his quills, warn them to be on their guard. Suddenly the creature rushes from its burrow to cast itself into the thicket; but the well-aimed blow of a poniard stretches it upon the sand. A fire being kindled, the animal is buried under the embers; and the quills then easily separate from the roasted and excellently-flavoured meat.