Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/122

106 Belonging to the warlike tribe of Uled Mesaoud, which roamed the prairies of Beni Bu Yahi, the place was wiped out during the course of inter-tribal wars. It was here that the army of the Almohades was cut to pieces during its retreat from the east.

Beyond Gwersif the road continues on through the stony desert, until suddenly it approaches the single spot in this whole region which resembles a prairie. There, through the presence of some water-supply available over a few acres, yellow grasses and low, bushy palms were sufficient to give life to the plain, though they seemed insignificant enough as verdure. Prairie-larks and other small birds flew about from shrub to shrub, hunting locusts and insects; small field-mice with coats that exactly matched the prairie background showed themselves here and there; while bustards ran out almost from under the wheels of the swiftly moving car. During subsequent hunting expeditions in more southern latitudes I had occasion to shoot some of these African bustards. Generally they were the Otis houbara or Otis Arabs and were distinctly smaller than the Otis tarda, familiar in Europe and Asia but much rarer in North Africa.

From a pile of stones near which we stopped there scuttled down a big lizard, whose brothers I subsequently met in several places. The Arabs call it a "dabb." It belongs to the Agama family and is zoologically designated as Uromastix spinipes. In the southern parts of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia the natives catch these lizards, fatten them and serve them as very récherché dishes. Sometimes they grow to a length of nearly twenty inches. The gall, brain and tongue are used in magic practices,