A long stick, C, held the two frames together, by passing underneath the frame, A, through the meshes of the net and through the rope of the frame, B, in such a way that, when B was raised at right angles to A, the rope became twisted sufficiently to cause B to fly back on to A when released, and so catch the bird between the two nets. B was held perpendicular by a stick, D, the lower end of which was pointed and fitted into a ring, E. The bait, F—a large yellow grub in the trap I saw—was tied to the ring. The upper end of D was tied back by a string, G, on to the end of C. A pull at the bait dragged down the ring, E, thus releasing D, and leaving B free to fly down on to A.
I saw many small boys in the oasis using a very primitive crossbow. The “stock” of this was simply a stout jerid, near one end of which a large slot had been cut. The bow, another jerid, fitted loosely into this slot and was not secured to the “stock” in any way. When bent the string of the bow caught in a notch on the upper side of the “stock,” on the top of which the arrow was kept by being held between the finger and thumb of the left hand. The string was released from its notch by being pressed upwards by the first finger of the right hand.
When loading the camels the men nearly always struck up a chanty. I managed to get the words of a few of them. In some cases it is doubtful if they had any meaning, but, where they seemed to admit of a translation, I have inserted one as a suggestion. The men, for some reason, disliked being questioned about them, and I am not sure that I have always got the words quite correctly.
In loading, one man stood on each side of the kneeling camel, and they usually placed a portion of the baggage on his back in turns, singing a line of the chanty as they did so. The commonest chant was “Elli hoa li al li” (this is higher than that?). This they would go on singing over and over again till the loading was completed.
Another was in three lines, which they sang alternately ad infinitum. It ran as follows:
Ya tekno ni
Ya lobal li
Ya tawal li
A more complicated chanty had five lines, which when finished was repeated. The first two lines were sung over twice by each of the two men, then the third line was repeated in the same way once, the fourth line was sung twice by each man. They then began with the first two lines again and repeated the whole process. The last line was only chanted once, by the man who added the last package to the load. The whole song ran as follows:
Ana wahdi (I am alone).
Repeated twice by each man.