The Horses of the Sahara 37

The Horses of the Sahara 37

In the desert, the male bird is called _delim_; the female, _reumda_; a

one-year old, _ral_; over one year, _oulid gleub_; a two-year old,

_oulid bou gleubtin_; a three-year old, _garah_, at which age the bird

attains its full growth.

 

The fat of the ostrich is used in the preparation of food—of

kouskoussou, for instance—and it is likewise eaten with bread. The Arabs

also apply it as a remedy in many diseases. It is sold in the

market-place, and in the tents of the rich a store of it is often kept

to give away to the poor, as a medicine. It is not, however, by any

means expensive—one pot of ostrich grease being exchanged for only three

pots of butter.

 

The plumes are sold in the _kuesours_, at Tougourt and at Leghrouât, and

among the Beni-Mzab, who, at the time of the purchase of grain, bring

ostrich skins down to the seaboard. Among the Oulad-Sidi-Shikh the skin

of the male was formerly sold at from four to five _douros_, and that of

the female at from ten to fifteen francs; but of late the price has

risen considerably. In the Sahara, before our time, the beautiful

ostrich plumes were only used to ornament the top of a tent or a straw

hat. The Shamba strengthen their shoes with the skin of the under part

of an ostrich's foot. They place a strip under the toes, and another

under the heel, and the sole will thus wear a long time. With the sinews

they make laces to sow the saddles, and to mend various articles made of

leather.

 

In the eyes of the Arab ostrich hunting possesses the double charm of

profit and pleasure. It is a favourite exercise of the horsemen of the

Sahara, and it is also a remunerative enterprise, the value of the skin

and fat much more than covering the expense. Notwithstanding the

numerous train indispensable for this species of sport, it is not by any

means the exclusive privilege of the rich. Any poor man who feels that

he can acquit himself well can generally contrive to join a party of

horsemen who propose to hunt the ostrich. He goes to a wealthy Arab, who

lends him a camel, a horse and harness, and two-thirds of the barley

required, two-thirds of the goat-skins, and two-thirds of the supply of

food. The other third of all things is provided by the borrower, and the

produce of the chace is divided between the two in the same proportions.

The servant who, during the expedition, rides the camel lent to the poor

man, receives from the latter two _boudjous_ for every male killed, and

one _boudjou_ for every female. He is, besides, fed from the provisions

taken with him by the horseman.

 

The ostrich is also hunted by lying in ambush, after it has laid its

eggs, or towards the middle of November. Five or six horsemen, taking

with them a couple of camels loaded with supplies for at least a month,

go in search of places where rain has recently fallen, or where ponds

are to be found. In such localities there is certain to be abundance of

herbage, which never fails to attract the ostriches in considerable

numbers. To avoid idle wanderings to and fro, they question every

individual, every caravan, they happen to meet: besides, they know

beforehand the most likely stations. On these occasions they provide

themselves, not with a cudgel, but with a rifle and an ample supply of

powder and ball.

 

As soon as they come upon ostrich tracks, the hunters examine them

closely. If they appear only in the form of patches here and there eaten

down to the ground, it shows that the ostrich has come here merely to

graze. But if the tracks cross each other in all directions, if the

grass has been trampled under foot, but not eaten, it is a sure sign

that the ostrich has made her nest in the neighbourhood. The hunters

thereupon search attentively for the spot where she has deposited her

eggs, and approach it with the greatest precautions. While the ostrich

is digging out her nest, all day long her plaintive moanings may be

heard, but after her eggs are laid she never utters her usual cry until

about three in the afternoon.

 

The female sits on her eggs from morning till mid-day, while the male

goes to the pasture. At noon he returns, and the female goes to feed in

her turn. When she comes back, she places herself four or five paces

from the nest, in front of the male, who incubates all night. The male

himself keeps watch over the eggs to defend them from all enemies.

Jackals, among others, often times place themselves in ambush near at

hand ready to play them an evil turn, and their bodies have frequently

been found by the hunters lying not far from the nests, stricken to

death by the male—the female being too timid to inspire any fear.

 

It is in the morning, during the time the female is sitting, that the

hunters dig on each side of the nest, and not above twenty paces

distant, a hole deep enough to contain a man. They then cover it over

with the long grass so common in the desert, so that only his rifle is

seen. The best marksmen are, of course, placed in these holes.

 

Seeing all these preparations, the female takes fright, and runs off to

join the male, who beats her and compels her to return to the nest. If

these preparations were to be made while the male is brooding, he would

go off to join the female, and neither of them would ever come back

again.

 

When the female returns to the nest, they take care not to molest her,

it being the rule to kill the male in the first instance. It is,

therefore, customary to await his return from the pasture, which happens

about noon, when the hunter holds himself ready. The ostrich, while

engaged in incubation, spreads out its wings so as to cover all the

eggs. In this position, with its legs bent under the body, the thighs

are very conspicuous. This circumstance is favourable to the marksman

who aims to break the leg of the bird. All chance of escape is thus cut

away, which would not be the case were it is wounded in any other part.

As soon as the ostrich is down the hunters run up and cut its throat.

The two marksmen come out of their holes, and their companions,

attracted by the report, lend their assistance. All traces of blood are

quickly covered with sand, and the body of the bird carefully concealed.

At sunset the female returns as usual to pass the night close to the

nest. The absence of the male causes her no anxiety, for she fancies he

has merely gone away to feed, and she quietly sits upon the eggs. She is

then killed in the same manner as her mate, by the hunter who has not

previously fired. The one who shot the male receives a _douro_ in

addition to his proper share; but if, what rarely happens, he should

miss his aim, he pays to his companions the value of the bird: "We chose

thee," they say, "as the best shot: we placed thee in the good position

to do us a benefit, and lo! thou workest us such a wrong as this. Thou

shalt pay for it." The hunter who killed the female receives only an egg

over and above his share. If he miss, he forfeits what would have come

to him from the price of the male and the eggs. The one who is to fire

at the male is appointed beforehand.

 

The nest of an ordinary couple contains from twenty five to thirty eggs,

but it frequently happens that several couples combine to lay in common.

In that case, they form a large enclosure, and the oldest couple are

placed in the centre, with the others around them in regular order—so

that, if they are four in number, they will occupy the four angles of a

square. When the eggs are all laid they are pushed towards the centre,

but not mingled together; and when the oldest male comes to sit the

others take their places around, where their eggs were laid—and the same

with the females. These companies are composed of the young of the same

family—in fact, of the young of the oldest couple. They do not all lay

the same number of eggs. The one-year olds, for instance, do not lay

more than four or five, and those of a small size. At times as many as a

hundred eggs are found in the same nest. These family gatherings are

most common where the herbage is most abundant. The Arabs have observed

a very singular circumstance. The eggs of each couple in these monster

nests are carefully piled up together, with one egg conspicuously at the

top. It is the one first laid, and it serves for a special purpose. As

soon as the male perceives that the moment has arrived for hatching, he

breaks with his beak the egg he judges to be the most forward, and at

the same time very carefully makes a small hole in the one which

surmounts the others. The latter furnishes their first meal to all the

young ones as they are hatched, and, though open, will remain sweet for

a considerable time. This quality is peculiarly useful; for the male

does not break all the eggs on the same day, but only three or four at a

time, when he hears the young ones moving inside. The egg which supplies

them with nourishment is always liquid, whether through the prevision of

nature, or that the old birds have instinctively avoided sitting on it.

 

The fledglings, after having partaken of their first meal, and being

speedily dried in the sun, begin at once to run about, and at the end of

a few days follow the parent birds to the pasture: in the nest, they

always nestle under their wings. The nest is generally of a circular

form, and is formed in a sandy soil. The ostrich constructs it with its

feet, by simply throwing out the sand from the centre to the

circumference. The dust raised by this operation may be seen at some

distance. The period of incubation lasts ninety nights.

 

The hunters eat the eggs if they are fresh, and not near ready to be

hatched. The shells they either throw away, or take with them, to give

as presents to friends, or to deposit them in the _koubba_.[85] However,

for some time past, the Arabs have become aware that eggs are an article

of traffic on the seaboard, and they now reserve them for that object.

 

The ambush hunt is very lucrative. It is quite possible to kill several

birds and carry off their eggs. At that season, the ostrich itself is

very lean; but, on the other hand, the feathers are better and hold more

firmly together. Where several couples are assembled together in one

nest, it is only the oldest male and female that are killed. Were the

hunters to make as many holes as there are birds, they would very soon

be discovered, and the whole company would take to flight.

 

According to the Arabs, ostriches kill vipers with a stroke of their

beak, and swallow them. They eat, also, serpents, locusts, scorpions,

lizards, and a very large fruit called _hadj_, abundant in the desert,

and produced by a creeping plant, bitter as turpentine, having leaves

like those of a water-melon: in short, they digest anything, even

stones. Such is the voracity of this bird that where it is kept in a

domesticated state, it bolts everything it comes across, knives,

jewelry, bits of iron. The Arab who gave me these details declared that

a woman one day had a coral necklace snatched from her neck and

swallowed by an ostrich, and I have heard an officer of the African army

relate how one tore off and bolted a button from his tunic. It is at the

same time very adroit, and will snatch a date from a man's lips without