DEATH IN THE DESERT

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIX, Issue 4723, 23 July 1935, Page 2

DEATH IN THE DESERT

THE FIGHTING BEDOUINS. The Arab's farewell to his steed is now becoming the Arab's farewell to his motor car. To-day the more wealthy Arabs, when they go raiding, have exchanged the horse for the horse-power. One chief, says Mr. Carl R. Raswan in "The Black Tents of Arabia," had a fleet of twenty-one automobiles. The coming of the car, too, has caused changes in their code of honour. Money (that is gold) does not mean much to the average Bedouin, though it may mean "everything" to his Sheykh, the chief of the tribe. To sell a mare is considered to be "dishonourably" parting from her. An Arab may give her away. But times are changing; automobiles and modern arms can now be traded against the best of their mares.

Yet the Arab still holds the horse in high esteem. Though a Bedouin may be poor, says Mr. Raswan, if his mare has brought him honour his friends will rise when he enters the Council —in tribute to her. "When they pass her they put their hands on her forehead and call her blessed."

Only Mares Ridden.

But in a Bedouin camp the worstlooking mare are often the best. For the Bedouin rides only mares; arid the well-nourished ones are usually those left behind when the others are on a raid. A few stallions •of diffei'ent strains are kept in each tribe for breeding purposes only. They are not taken on raids because they would neigh in the vicinity of mares and betray the raiders to their enemies. Most of the young stallions are bought up by Akheyls (camel traders and horse dealers of Central Arabia), and sold to Syria, Egypt, and Iraq. The nomad rides his horse without bit, whip, spurs and without blinkers. This is North African style, but not Arabian. As a rule, too, the Bedouin rides without a saddle and reins, but with just a head-stall and single rope; A small bead of blue glass is fastened in the mane or tail of a mare; or into the hair on the hump of his camel for "good luck."

"Faris" is an ho'noured name among the Arabs and means the "Cavalier," one who ventures alone into the enemy's camp and brings home a captured mare. Henceforth he is allowed to sit in the "Mejlis," the council of men, around his chief's camp-fire. "Aurans," named after Colonel Lawrence, by his father, Tra'd ibn Sattam esh-Sha'lan, of the Ruala, is the youngest "Faris" I ever knew among the Bedouins. He was only nine years old when he "took" his first mare from the midst of his enemies. Battle From Cars.

Mr. Raswan himself took part in a desert skirmish under the modern,! Chicago conditions. It was a terrifying and tragic experience. Driving with a few friends, he was ambushed by three cars belonging to a hostile: tribe. They had successfully dealt with one of them, but had to pull up owing to a damaged engine. They took cover and waited for the attack:

As I started to load a fresh clip I heard a dull thud behind me and a heavy body tumbled over me. I jerked my shoulder to let it slide off, and it collapsed limply on the ground. It was Sleyman. His wide-open eyes stared into emptiness. A bullet had pierced the right temple and come out under his left jaw. At the same moment I became conscious again of the oncoming car not one hundred yards oft", and heard a voice cry half in terror, half in warning: "Merciful one! O God of Grace!"

It was Mr. Raswan's great friend, Faris, who had crept away from the car to get a clearer sight and now lay wholly exposed on the sand. As the death-car thundered past bullets clashed into the chassis of our vehicle, but in spite of the feverish excitement and the clanging andclat-

ter about me, my ears picked out repeatedly in the fury of noise those hollow thuds known only to those who have taken part in pitched battles—the sound of bullets: striking into living flesh. Then I also heard moaning and groans. I straightened up a little to take a hasty, look —and my blood ran cold. Faris lay writhing on the ground ahead of me. With one comrade, Mr. Raswan managed to beat off the enemy, and they got the mortally wounded Faris back to their own camp. Here they related their adventures to the accompaniment of the free commentsof the company. With incredible selfmastery, Faris, marked by Death, sought to hide his sufferings, and take part in the general conversation which ran on and on. Every little detail of the fighting was threshed out in cold bloody and Faris's .inevitable fate was discussed with (to anyone of the Western world), cruel, disregard of his feelings.. This discussion lasted two.hours. ..

Faris died shortly afterwards.

Next to fighting the Bedouin loves hunting. One of his sports is wolf - sticking, which corresponds to the pig-sticking in India. As in pigsticking, the sportsman is mounted and armed with a lance —and the wolf is as subtle an adversary as the wild boar. Mr. Raswan found this but. He overtook his wolf and prepared to strike:

The tip of my lance actually grazed his pelt, but again the cunning old devil had the best of me, and slipped away from danger and loped off. The lance drove full force into the ground and jerked me, as on a vaulting pole, high into the air. The shaft split into four parts, and I landed head over heels on the hard gravel beside my mare, which had come down on her knees.

Falconry is another popular diversion. The hawks will tackle almost anything, including gazelles and even stakes. Mr. Raswan saw a fierce combat between a falcon and a viper;—■ With his outspread tail propped on the ground the falcon was grappling a snake in his talons, and with his beak striking at its elusive head. The snake writhed and coiled round the bird spasmodically, but could get no purchase on the plumage. At last the falcon seized the viper's head and, with a few circular movements, twisted it off. \ The Bedouins's guest must never go hungry, even if everyone else suffered want. During a migration the tribe Mr. Raswan was with came near to starvation. Yet he tells us, it Was touching to see. a tribesman, himself half-starved, bring to his Sheykh's tent a hare of a gazelle,. or other game, as an offering for the sustenance of his chieftain's guest. Even the children and , women came by every day and from a clothes bundle laid down a handful of truffles or a wild pigeon. Once a boy brought me a large, fat lizard which he had killed with a stone, and later a* rock-badger and a yellow-headed vulture.