Page 151 - Arabian Studies (II)

Hunting Techniques and Practices in the Arabian Peninsula 143
training and for recording their pedigree (by word of mouth)’. Thesiger, Sands,
284, says his companions played with the young saluki dog, allowing him also to
lie on their blankets and drink from their dishes.
68. Cf. R. Meinertzhagen, Birds of Arabia, Edinburgh, 1954, 547. There is a
picture of the bird opposite the page cited. Dickson, Arab, 366, calls it the lesser
bustard. The error is repeated in Waters, Saluki, 32. Thesiger, Sands, 290,
identifies the bird correctly, describes it as being as big as a hen turkey and states
that it arrives in the Peninsula from Persia, Iraq and Syria at the beginning of the
winter and leaves in spring. Dickson, loc. cit., has confirmed this and adds that a
few of the birds do nest in the Peninsula. It has been suggested that the houbara
has a second line of defence against the hawk, namely the ability to eject at
some speed and over considerable distance its mutes which either blind the hawk
or gum up its feathers. This has wide currency in oral tradition and cf. Usamah,
Ptibar, 160. This weapon would seem to be brought into use only at times of
great fear, cf. the line of poetry of Aws b. Ghalfa’, MufaddalTyat, 758, line 10:
‘They left you more ready to mute than the bustard which has seen a hawk and
more frightened than the ostrich.’
69. Meinertzhagen, Birds, 468—9.
70. Cf. D. L. Harrison, The Mammals of Arabia, London, 1972, III, 385-95.
71. Harrison, Mammals, II, 349-65, with photographs on 350-1, 359 and
366.
72. Harrison, Mammals, II, 344-9. Photograph, 344-5 and Natshah, Rihlah,
126.
73. E.g. Jordan, cf. J. D. Lunt, ‘Hunting gazelle with falcons’, Country Life,
4 October 1956,705.
74. We have here drawn heavily upon Lunt, ‘Hunting’, 705 and Waters,
Saluki, 35-6, who has been able to gather much valuable information from the
late Brigadier Lance, himself a keen gazelle hunter. Waters, 37-40, quotes
verbatim the description of a gazelle course in the Libyan Desert by Wentworth
Day. Where possible, we have checked this material with Peninsular Arabs.
75. See note 21 above.
76. Mammals, II, 344-49.
77. ‘Hunting’, 705.
78. Waters, 40.
79. One of the present writers can recall personally driving beside running
gazelle in southern Arabia, when the speedometer rarely exceeded 30 m.p.h.
80. Lunt, ‘Hunting’, 705, tells us that the chase, involving both salukis and
hawks, lasted for fifteen minutes. Taking the lowest quoted speed of the gazelle,
20 m.p.h., this would mean a course of five miles - without the hawks, one can
assume, a good deal longer.
81. Sands, 293. This is the best account of hawking in the Arabian Desert.
82. LabTd, op. cit., lines 49-52. al-Nabighah in Kitdb Sharh al-Qasaid
al-'Ashr (ed. C. J. Lyall), Calcutta, 1894, lines 13-18. ‘Abdah, lines 29-39. Abu
Dhu’ayb, lines 36-48.
83. The DTwdn of Dhul-Rummah (ed. C. H. H. Macartney), Cambridge,
1919, poems 1, lines 88-104, 14, lines 67-83 and 38, lines 24-8.
84. Bayzarah, 149.