Page 40 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat
P. 40
thc Shaikh was there, to be admired, examined and probably bought by twisted round his head. He tells us that ‘habara— bustard—have been
the Shaikh and his relations—which dislocated the morning’s programme. sighted in two places a few miles away. As the country is too rough for
Two kinds of hawks were used in Bahrain, the ‘Shahin’, of the peregrine cars the party sets off on camels and donkeys. I choose a camel and
type, and the ‘Horr’—the latter word is said by some authorities to be Marjorie rides a big white donkey which moves at a smooth amble. The
derived from the Egyptian hawk-headed god Horns. Shaikh and some of the men carry hawks on their wrists, perched on
The season lasted for two or three months while the bustard were in cylindrical leather gauntlets to which the birds arc attached by a light
Bahrain on their migration to the south. They are birds somewhat leather tic which is fastened to their legs.
similar in appearance to a hen turkey with great expanse of wings. They We get near the quarry. Everybody dismounts and we walk on to
arc powerful fliers when once they get going. During the hunting some high ground overlooking a valley full of low-growing shrubs.
season the Shaikh often spent several days in one of his little hunting Binoculars are unslung and brought into play and two bustard arc
lodges in the southern part of the island and we would drive out and sighted. The Shaikh advances a few steps with Mansoor, his best hawk.
join him there. He unleashes it and slips off its hood, talking to it as he does so. The bird
It is a bright sunny morning in December. The sky is blue but clouds sits on his wrist, moving its head from side to side. Then, suddenly, it
are banking up over the western sea, presaging rain, and ic is cold enough launches into the air. It has sighted the bustard, which is making off as
for tweed clothes. Marjorie and I set off in the car with Abdulla, my fast as it can, but it has hardly left the ground before the hawk has pounced
police driver. We take the Budeya road out of Manama. It is lined with on it. One sees on the ground a confused melee of flapping wings. We all
groves of date-palms and gardens full of trees; in places lanes lead through run towards the spot, even the Shaikh runs, which is an unusual sight. The
the gardens to the shore, disclosing vistas of blue sea. The traffic in the first Arab who arrives at the kill throws his cloak over the two struggling
road is mostly village people coming into town in garishly painted, birds and then disengages the hawk from its prey and with a deft move-
locally built buses. They slow down, nervously, as I pass them, fearing ment replaces the leather hood over the hawk’s head. He picks up the
that I may stop and count the passengers, for they are usually carrying mangled remains of the bustard and puts it into his bag. We set off again.
more than they are licensed to hold. We drive on beyond the villages to The second bustard is sighted some distance away. This time two
the open country, which in places is quite green, passing Zclaq, a little hawks are ‘cast off’. But the bustard has had a fair start and is far up in
town on a promontory, surrounded on three sides by the sea in which the the air before the hawk is level with it. This contest is more exciting. The
white houses are reflected. Farther down the coast we see a group of bustard soars higher and higher and the hawk tries to get above it in
flamingos which fly off, flapping their rose-coloured wings, and I sight order to swoop down and plunge its talons into the bird. The hawk is
a herd of gazelle bounding along below the escarpment which surrounds above the bustard. It drops down on its quarry, but misses it. Once again
the basin in the centre of the island where the oilfield is situated. We the two birds soar aloft and again the hawk drops, like a stone, on to the
arrive at Ma’tala, the little house where the Shaikh is staying. It is sur bustard. The two birds come to the ground with a thud.
rounded by tents and parked cars, and donkeys and camels are tethered Meanwhile the other hawk has gone off on a wild-goose chase. The
close by. falconer runs after it, calling it by its name with a guttural voice. He takes
*
The Shaikh meets us and we sit in his tent drinking coffee while a live pigeon, on a string, out of his bag and throws it in the air, letting
donkeys and camels are saddled. In front of the tent a number of hooded it fall, fluttering, to the ground. After doing this several times the hawk
hawks are sitting on their perches, stands about two feet high covered is attracted by the lure and flies down on to the pigeon, where it is cap-
above with leather, stuck into the ground with iron spikes. He is in good tured and hooded. During the day’s hunting we get six bustard, which in
form, laughing and joking with his falconers, who squat on the ground Bahrain is a good bag. That evening wc had a brace of bustard for dinner.
outside the tent. He is never more happy than when he can get away They are excellent eating and a change from the usual menu of mutton
from all the worries of state affairs on a hunting trip. He is differently and beef and chicken.
dressed when he is on the desert. He wears a long coffee-coloured woollen Few people in Britain now keep hawks, but I happened to know one
robe, rather like a man’s dressing-gown, and his Kashmir headcloth is of the Malcolms of Poltailoch, in Scotland, who still practised falconry.
72 73
v.
