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.
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