And the camel, it turns out not only the desert ship, but also the street fighter. I never thought that such calm intavory animals can participate in contests.
Immediately make a reservation that I do not belong to lovers of lifting adrenaline of this kind of entertainment. But, with the phrase "camel fights", women's curiosity still took up the feeling of humanity and led me to the place of holding competitions. Well, firstly, the camels we see not as often, especially in such quantities, and secondly, I was promised that there were no bloody fights there.
It was January, that day the weather in the village of Yalikavak, which in Bodrum, was windy and not in Turkish, but as we approached the arena, I still understood how much this entertainment is loved by local residents. As such arena for these competitions, there was not only a huge place in the area in a nizine, surrounded by a perimeter with a low grid and natural origin of hill. Which were completely filled with the crowd excited by the crowd, from the voices of which, literally, stood hum. People came families, with children, women, young people and older elderly and old women, from somewhere even came to a foreign speech, someone danced, playing music.
After some time, the first pair of camels brought into the arena, the owners bypassed the arena in a circle, leading animals and presenting them to the public. At this time, the organizers announced through the loudspeaker, the names of the owners and cliche of camels, as well as their regalia, if any. Camels were hurt by decorations: Bubrentes, ribbons, rugs and handmade saddles, with inscriptions Mashallah (Masallah), which in translation from Arabic means the wish of good luck and simultaneous protection against the evil eye. Then animals brought the Arena to the center and began to wait. The battle did not start, camels did not want to find out the relationship. So that the rivals are cheered up, a camel came near them (it should be noted that the competitions take place from January to March, during the marriage period, when the behavior of males is the most aggressive). After the appearance of the object for competition, the rivals revived a little, and the battle began.
In fact, what happened in the arena is difficult to call the battle, it rather was more like a comedy than on the battle, the clumsy shocks, puff and alternate pressing of each other to the ground. Sometimes such rivals still had to take care. The losers are the one who first would be preferred from the battlefield, and wait for the winner for a long time did not have to, usually the action lasted no more than 10 minutes, and sometimes it was enough for a few seconds. In general, all this was more like a show of animal costumes and their owners, which I was and glad. The animals were not injured, and the audience received their portion of the spectacle.
If men looked at what was happening with interest, women were more busy with conversations about the pressing and lick of seeds, the children ate sugar wool and ran. In the background, small tents were broken behind the spectators, where not only souvenirs and sweets were sold, but also sausage products from cameljatin, which I did not venture to try, although the sellers in vainly assured that this "Cheek Guzel", which translated from Turkish in This case means "very tasty."
Camel fights in Turkey have been held for almost two hundred years, but the tradition itself originated 24,000 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia, in the Southeast Anatolia region of modern Turkey. Then it reached Central Asia, and still causes great interest among the population, especially in the western part of Turkey.