The Fields Of Tafyle Are Frequented By Immense Numbers Of Crows; The
Eagle Rakham Is Very Common In The Mountains, As Are Also Wild Boars.
In
all the Wadys south of the Modjeb, and particularly in those of Modjeb
and El Ahsa, large herds of mountain goats, called by the Arabs Beden
(Arabic), are met with.
This is the Steinbock, or Bouquetin of the Swiss
and Tyrol Alps they pasture in flocks of forty or fifty together; great
numbers of them are killed by the people of Kerek and Tafyle, who hold
their flesh in high estimation. They sell the large knotty horns to the
Hebron merchants, who carry them to Jerusalem, where they are worked
into handles for knives and daggers. I saw a pair of these horns at
Kerek three feet and a half in length. The Arabs told
[p.406] me that it is very difficult to get a shot at them, and that the
hunters hide themselves among the reeds on the banks of streams where
the animals resort in the evening to drink; they also asserted, that
when pursued, they will throw themselves from a height of fifty feet and
more upon their heads without receiving any injury. The same thing is
asserted by the hunters in the Alps. In the mountains of Belka, Kerek,
Djebal, and Shera, the bird Katta [This bird is a species of partridge,
Tetrao Alkatta, and is found in large flocks in May and June in every
part of Syria. It has been particularly described in Russel’s Aleppo,
vol. ii. p. 194.] is met with in immense numbers; they fly in such large
flocks that the Arab boys often kill two and three at a time, merely by
throwing a stick amongst them. Their eggs, which they lay in the rocky
ground, are collected by the Arabs. It is not improbable that this bird
is the Seloua (Arabic), or quail, of the children of Israel.
The peasants of Tafyle have but few camels; they till the ground with
oxen and cows, and use mules for the transport of their provisions. At
half an hour south of Tafyle is the valley of Szolfehe (Arabic). From a
point above Tafyle the mountains of Dhana (which I shall have occasion
to mention hereafter) bore S.S.W.
August 11th.—During our stay at Tafyle we changed our lodgings twice
every day, dining at one public house and supping at another. We were
well treated, and had every evening a musical party, consisting of
Bedouins famous for their performance upon the Rababa, or guitar of the
desert, and who knew all the new Bedouin poetry by heart. I here met a
man from Aintab, near Aleppo, who hearing me talk of his native town,
took a great liking to me, and shewed me every civility.
We left Tafyle on the morning of the 11th. In one hour we reached a
spring, where a party of Beni Szaleyt was encamped. At two hours was a
ruined village, with a fine spring, at the head of
BESZEYRA
[p.407] a Wady.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 268 of 453
Words from 139372 to 139887
of 236498
