The Skin Is As Sleek As Satin, Of
A Colour Difficult To Describe, As It Varies Between The Lightest
Mauve
And yellowish brown; the belly is snow-white; the legs,
from the knee downwards, are also white, and are as
Fine as
though carved from ivory; the hoof is beautifully shaped, and
tapers to a sharp point; the head of the buck is ornamented by
gracefully-curved annulated horns, perfectly black, and generally
from nine to twelve inches long in the bend; the eye is the
well-known perfection--the full, large, soft, and jet-black eye
of the gazelle. Although the desert appears incapable of
supporting animmial life, there are in the undulating surface
numerous shallow sandy ravines, in which are tufts of a herbage
so coarse that, as a source of nourishment, it would be valueless
to a domestic animal: nevertheless, upon this dry and wiry
substance the delicate gazelles subsist; and, although they never
fatten, they are exceedingly fleshy and in excellent condition.
Entirely free from fat, and nevertheless a mass of muscle and
sinew, the gazelle is the fastest of the antelope tribe. Proud of
its strength, and confident in its agility, it will generally
bound perpendicularly four or five feet from the ground several
times before it starts at full speed, as though to test the
quality of its sinews before the race. The Arabs course them with
greyhounds, and sometimes they are caught by running several dogs
at the same time; but this result is from the folly of the
gazelle, who at first distances his pursuers like the wind; but,
secure in its speed, it halts and faces the dogs, exhausting
itself by bounding exultingly in the air; in the meantime the
greyhounds are closing up, and diminishing the chance of escape.
As a rule, notwithstanding this absurdity of the gazelle, it has
the best of the race, and the greyhounds return crestfallen and
beaten. Altogether it is the most beautiful specimen of game that
exists, far too lovely and harmless to be hunted and killed for
the mere love of sport. But when dinner depends upon the rifle,
beauty is no protection; accordingly, throughout our desert march
we lived upon gazelles, and I am sorry to confess that I became
very expert at stalking these wary little animals. The flesh,
although tolerably good, has a slight flavour of musk; this is
not peculiar to the gazelle, as the odour is common to most of
the small varieties of antelopes.
Having a good supply of meat, all hands were busily engaged in
cutting it into strips and drying it for future use; the bushes
were covered with festoons of flesh of gazelles and hippopotami,
and the skins of the former were prepared for making girbas, or
water-sacks. The flaying process for this purpose is a delicate
operation, as the knife must be so dexterously used that no false
cut should injure the hide. The animal is hung up by the hind
legs; an incision is then made along the inside of both thighs to
the tail, and with some trouble the skin is drawn off the body
towards the head, precisely as a stocking might be drawn from the
leg; by this operation the skin forms a seamless bag, open at
both ends. To form a girba, the skin must be buried in the earth
for about twenty hours: it is then washed in water, and the hair
is easily detached. Thus rendered clean, it is tanned by soaking
for several days in a mixture of the bark of a mimosa and water;
from this it is daily withdrawn, and stretched out with pegs upon
the ground; it is then well scrubbed with a rough stone, and
fresh mimosa bark well bruised, with water, is rubbed in by the
friction. About four days are sufficient to tan the thin skin of
a gazelle, which is much valued for its toughness and durability;
the aperture at the hind quarters is sewn together, and the
opening of the neck is closed, when required, by tying. A good
water-skin should be porous, to allow the water to exude
sufficiently to moisten the exterior: thus the action of the air
upon the exposed surface causes evaporation, and imparts to the
water within the skin a delicious coolness. The Arabs usually
prepare their tanned skins with an empyreumatical oil made from
a variety of substances, the best of which is that from the
sesame grain; this has a powerful smell, and renders the water so
disagreeable that few Europeans could drink it. This oil is
black, and much resembles tar in appearance; it has the effect of
preserving the leather, and of rendering it perfectly
water-tight. In desert travelling each person should have his own
private water-skin slung upon his dromedary; for this purpose
none are so good as a small-sized gazelle skin that will contain
about two gallons.
On the 23d June we were nearly suffocated by a whirlwind that
buried everything within the tents several inches in dust; the
heat was intense; as usual the sky was spotless, but the simoom
was more overpowering than I had yet experienced. I accordingly
took my rifle and went down to the pool, as any movement, even in
the burning sun, was preferable to inaction in that sultry heat
and dust. The crocodiles had dragged the skeletons of the
hippopotami into the water; several huge heads appeared and then
vanished from the surface, and the ribs of the carcase that
projected, trembled and jerked as the jaws of the crocodiles were
at work beneath. I shot one of very large size through the head,
but it sank to the bottom; I expected to find it on the following
morning floating upon the surface when the gas should have
distended the body.
I also shot a large single bull hippopotamus late in the evening,
which was alone at the extremity of the pool; he sank at the
forehead shot, and, as he never rose again, I concluded that he
was dead, and that I should find him on the morrow with the
crocodile.
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