DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11637#0149
134 TRAVELS IN UPPER
the hart and the fallow deer *, bears equally this
appellation of bakkar el ouesh in Barbary, accord-,
ing to Dr. Shaw-f~; but the wild ox of the Arabs
of Egypt is very different in its genus from the
axis, and, I repeat, is a species of that of the ox^.
I have commonly seen these oxen in herds of
eight or ten. They almost always fdllow each
other in a line, and sometimes stop to play, or
fight with their horns. Whenever they espy a
traveller, be the distance what it may, they make
off. The Arabs hunt them on horseback, or hide
themselves behind the thickets of shrubs, to shoot
them by surprise. Their flesh is good, and their
hide is much sought after for its strength and
thickness.
That pretty species of animals, the eyes of which
are considered in the East as the standard of per-
fection, the antelope, is seen marching in nume-
rous herds, and traversing with speed the hills and
plains. These arc as shy as the wild oxen, and the
approach of a strange object is sufficient to make
* Axis. Buffon, Hist. Nat. des Quad.—Cervui axis. Lin.
f Travels, vol. i.
| Bakar uasch. Bos silvestris. Forskal, Fauna Egypt.-Arab.
p. iv. It must be noted, that Fcrskal has classed this animal
in a paragraph appropriated to those of the genus of which he
was uncertain, generis incerti, and which he had not seen.
them
the hart and the fallow deer *, bears equally this
appellation of bakkar el ouesh in Barbary, accord-,
ing to Dr. Shaw-f~; but the wild ox of the Arabs
of Egypt is very different in its genus from the
axis, and, I repeat, is a species of that of the ox^.
I have commonly seen these oxen in herds of
eight or ten. They almost always fdllow each
other in a line, and sometimes stop to play, or
fight with their horns. Whenever they espy a
traveller, be the distance what it may, they make
off. The Arabs hunt them on horseback, or hide
themselves behind the thickets of shrubs, to shoot
them by surprise. Their flesh is good, and their
hide is much sought after for its strength and
thickness.
That pretty species of animals, the eyes of which
are considered in the East as the standard of per-
fection, the antelope, is seen marching in nume-
rous herds, and traversing with speed the hills and
plains. These arc as shy as the wild oxen, and the
approach of a strange object is sufficient to make
* Axis. Buffon, Hist. Nat. des Quad.—Cervui axis. Lin.
f Travels, vol. i.
| Bakar uasch. Bos silvestris. Forskal, Fauna Egypt.-Arab.
p. iv. It must be noted, that Fcrskal has classed this animal
in a paragraph appropriated to those of the genus of which he
was uncertain, generis incerti, and which he had not seen.
them