Page 106 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW - ISSUE 13

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Apart from hunting with dogs, the Tuareg also
practise trapping. Here you can see how a trap
with radial points is set and the lasso is attached
to a thick branch, which is stuck into the ground
and covered with a layer of sand. Lhote, in Les
Touaregs p.209

It is best studied in Ahaggar, where it is most popular. This favour goes back far into the
past, and the rocks of the central Sahara massif bear numerous reproductions of hunting
scenes of mouflon, some of them very old, carved or painted on their walls.

Lhote further:

“The oldest legend of Ahaggar, the legend of Akkar, tells that this king was a great mouflon
hunter in pre-Islamic times. He was so enthusiastic about this hunt that he once ordered
great drive hunts to round up all the mouflons from the mountains in the valley of Abalessa,
where he wanted to kill them. His people, the Issabates, were horrified by their king's

decision and the disastrous consequences it might entail, namely the extermination of their
favourite game, and decided to kill him. He was stoned to death in the koudia of Ahaggar
near the springs of O. Taroumout and to ensure that he would not return to the realm of the
living they covered his body with a huge pile of stones which people still show you and which

they call Azzeka-n-Akkar, i.e. the Tomb of Akkar.