catching them is not so easy, but is managed with great effect. The
ostrich is, as is generally known, a remarkably shy bird, and is so
blind at night it cannot feed. Again, the Somali pony, though
wonderfully hardy and enduring, is not swift; therefore, to
accommodate existing power to knowledge of these various weaknesses,
the Somali provides himself with a pony, and provisions for two or
three days, and begins his hunt by showing himself at such a
considerable distance from the birds he has formed his design upon,
that they quietly stalk off, and he, at the same rate, follows after,
but never draws near enough to scare them out of sight of him. At
night, the birds stop in consequence of the darkness, but cannot feed.
He, on the other hand, dismounts to rest and feed with his pony, and
resumes the chase the following day. After the second or third day,
when he and the pony are as fresh as ever, the ostriches, from
constant fasting, become so weak, he is able to ride in amongst them,
and knock down one by one as many as may be in the flock. The flesh is
eaten, and the feathers are taken to the sea-coast for transportation
to the Aden market. I once saw a donkey-load of feathers carried to
market that had been taken in this way.

There are two methods, also, of killing gazelles; the more usual one
is effected by two men walking into a bushy ground to search for them,
and when discovered, walking in such large circles around them as will
not scare them; gradually they draw their circles in, until a favoured
bush, down wind, is found, which the herd is most likely, when once
moved, to pass by, and behind this one of the men stops, with his bow
and arrows, whilst the second one, without ever stopping to create
alarm, continues drawing in the circles of circumvention until he
induces the gazelles to walk up to the bush his friend is concealed
in, when one or more may be easily shot. The other plan for killing