Page 120 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

could easily be slipped off. On reaching a likely place, one of
the birds was unhooded; it sat on the rider’s wrist, moving its
head round looking for game. After riding some time, a gazelle
sprang up ahead, and was seen racing away. The hawk’s jess was
slipped, and it launched into the air, moving with great speed, and
no apparent effort. At the same time, a brace of silukis, Arab
greyhounds, were released, but they had no chance of overtaking
the gazelle, though they rapidly outran the horsemen who were
going at full gallop in pursuit. The hawk skimmed along, flying
a few feet above the ground, rose higher in the air when it was
on a line with its quarry, and then dropped down on to the head
of the gazelle, which tripped and fell. In an instant, the hounds
reached it, followed by the falconer’s son. He immediately cut
the gazelle’s neck, and gave the hawk a piece of the bleeding flesh,
and while it was engaged in eating the meat, lie popped the hood
over its head. A second gazelle, which was put up, provided a
longer run. Again the hawk and the two greyhounds took part
in the chase, but it was some time before the gazelle was brought
down. The hawk dropped on its prey, but the gazelle continued
to run, and was only defeated when the hounds caught up with it.
In Bahrain, where falconry has long been the favourite sport
of the Shaikhs, hawks and greyhounds arc never used together.
The quarry is usually a bustard, and the season for hawking is
when the migrating bustards come to the islands. Silukis hounds
arc used for coursing hares which arc still fairly plentiful in Bah­
rain. On the main island, there arc a few gazelle and, on one of
the smaller islands, there arc both gazelle and black buck; the
latter were imported from India many years ago. But the
Shaikh docs not allow any of these antelopes to be shot or hunted,
unlike the situation in Qatar or Saudi Arabia, where gazelle arc
run down by Arabs in cars, and slaughtered with machine guns.
On the Western Desert of Egypt, as in Persia, silukis and hawks
used to be employed together for hunting hares or foxes.
On April nth, Loch was back at Bushirc, where he remained
for three weeks. The Shaikh of Bushire had recently bought a
ship of between five and six hundred tons, and as the Eden was
about the same tonnage, he wished to sec her, though the con­
struction of a man-of-war was very different from that of a
merchant ship. The Shaikh’s ship was the first that Persia could
boast of, except for a man-of-war built by order of Nadir Shah
ioo