He was too
annoyed to answer his dragoman.... _Enfin_, Tahar had left his
eagles at Ain Mahdy, and Owen fed them morning and evening, gorging
them with food, not knowing that one of the great difficulties is to
procure in the trained eagle sufficient hunger to induce him to
pursue the quarry. It was an accident that some friend of Tahar's
surprised Owen feeding the eagles and warned him.
"These eagles will not be able to hunt for weeks now."
Owen cursed himself and the universe, Allah and the God of Israel,
Christ and the prophets.
"But, _Sidna_, their hunger can be excited by a drug, and this drug
is Tahar's secret."
"Then to-morrow we start, though there be sand storms or rain storms,
whatever the weather may be."
The dragoman condoned Owen's mistake in feeding the eagles.
"The gazelles come down from the mountains after the rains; we shall
catch sight of some on our way."
A few hours after he rode up to Owen and said, "Gazelles!"
When he looked to the right of the sunset Owen could see yellow,
spotted with black; something was moving over yonder among the
patches of rosemary and lavender.
The gazelles were far away when the caravan reached the rosemary, but
their smell remained, overpowering that of the rosemary and
lavender; it seemed as if the earth itself breathed nothing but
musk, and Owen's surprise increased when he saw the Arabs collecting
the droppings, and on asking what use could be made of these he was
told that when they were dried they were burnt as pastilles; when
the animal had been feeding upon rosemary and lavender they gave out
a delicious odour.
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