TAFYLE. 
406 
me that it is very difficult to get a shot at them, and that the hun 
ters 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* is 
met with in immense numbers ; they fly in such large flocks that the 
Arab boys often kill two and three at a time, merely by throwing a 
stick amongst them. Their eggs, which they lay in the rocky 
ground, are collected by the Arabs. It is not improbable that this 
bird is the Seloua (»), or quail, of the children of Israel. 
The peasants of Tafyle have but few camels ; they till the ground 
with oxen and cows, and use mules for the transport of their provi 
sions. At half an hour south of Tafyle is the valley of Szolfehe 
(e). From a point above Tafyle the mountains of Dhana (which 
I shall have occasion to mention hereafter) bore S. S. W. 
August 11th.—During our stay at Tafyle we changed our lod 
gings twice every day, dining at one public house and supping at 
another. We were well treated, and had every evening a musical 
party, consisting of Bedouins famous for their performance upon 
the Rababa, or guitar of the desert, and who knew all the new 
Bedouin poetry by heart. I here met a man from Aintab, near 
Aleppo, who hearing me talk of his native town, took a great liking 
tome, and shewed me every civility. 
We left Tafyle on the morning of the 11th. In one hour we 
reached a spring, where a party of Beni Szaleyt was encamped. 
At two hours was a ruined village, with a fine spring, at the head of 
* This bird is a species of partridge, Tetrao Alkatta, and is found in large flocks in 
May and June in every part of Syria. It has been particularly described in Russel's 
Aleppo, vol. ii. p. 194.