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NOVEMBER, 1921)
THE MARSH ARABS OF LOWER MESOPOTAMIA
291
Wild pigs (Ar. Khanzár, pl. Khanazir) sleep on the dry mounds, wallow in the shallow marshes, feed on the succulent reeds, and swim rapidly and readily away into deep water when disturbed. They are numerous, attain fairly large size, but do not seem to be hunted.
The only domestic animal possessed by the Marsh Arab in the Water Buffalo (Bos bubalus, Linn., Ar. Jämus, pl. Dowdb), and in it his wealth chiefly consists. These animals are black, with the tip of the tail white, and occasionally a little white on the head, especially in the calf or Tuffal: the eye is blue, or brown, or black, and the horns straight, not curled like those of the Delhi Water Buffalo. The female gives a larger quantity of milk than a cow, and of greater richness (a verage fats 7 per cent.). This milk is used to make the clarified butter (the ghi of India) known to the Arabs as dihin : this is used by all the in. habitants of the 'Iraq, except the Jews, for cooking, and for pouring over the evening meal of boiled rice. The demand for this article is therefore considerable and constant. Buffalo are milked once only in the twenty-four hours, after sun-down. The only food of these beasts is the herbage of the marshes and marsh edges, and consists, during most of the year, almost exclusively of reeds and bulrushes, though during the coldest part of the year this is supplemented by coarse grazing over and between the rice fields round the edges of the marsh.
Liver flukes were found in some buffalo slaughtered at 'Amâra in 1918, but it is not known if this parasite be common. Military cows, fed on the edge of the marshes at 'Ambâri near Qarmat 'Ali in the autumn of 1919, became infected.
Reptiles and Amphlblans. The reptilian and amphibian fauna of the marshes is not unimportant. A species of Clemmys (Ar. Raqqa, pl. Raquq) appears to be widely distributed. Trionyx (Ar. Rafash, pl. Rafush) occurs on the Euphrates and in the Hamar Lake. It is celebrated for its ferocity and for the fact that it occasionally emasculates swimmers. A British soldier at Nasiriyeh fell a victim to this unfortunate predilection. Its presence in the water acts as some deterrent to those wishing to swim, though Marsh Arabs will swim in any water on occasion.
The Frogs, Ranz ant Hyla (Ar. Aqrûqa, pl. Agrûq, pronounced A grúga, Agrúg, an excellent example of onomatopoea), both occur in the marshes.
It is interesting that, though all meat except that of birds and fishes is too expensive for Marsh Arabs to eat, yet there is no evidence that they eat the flesh of any of these reptiles and amphibians. The Qoran nowhere condemns such flesh, but Arabs appear horrified at the idea of eating a tortoise. Pood which is abhorrent but not forbidden (Mamnu'a) is called Makruh. Having captured a tortoise one day and safely brought it home, our hopes of mook-turtle soup were shattered by our cook refusing to soil his hands with the “ foul" beast. But it is not impossible that Marsh Arabs do eat this flesh and do not advertise the fact. In this connection it may be mentioned that once, when we had killed and skinned a wild cat, the meat was collected carefully by an Arab and handed over to his wife in his hut. Afterwards, during & discussion with the shaikh of the district, this same old cultivator, who happened to be present, was 88 loud as anyone in condemning the disgusting practice of eating cat's meat.
Fish. We know little of the food fishes of the Marsh Arabs: Cyprinid (Carp family) fish are common and are eaten in large numbers. One of the commonest is known as Batůt. Siluridae (Mudfish) are common, but we do not know if they be eaten by Marsh Arabs. They are unclean for Shia Muhammadans, but, though the dwellers in the marshes are nominally Shia, yet they are extremely lax in religious matters.
