A long time ago, somewhere on the Tunisian steppe, a nomadic shepherd sat before his tent, his eyes fixed on his flock, the reddish horizon of twilight in his field of vision. Crouching beside him, his traveling companion and faithful friend, his Sloughi Skhab, stood with his head held high and proud, like a sentinel.

Suddenly, they saw a cloud of dust approaching at full speed, as if the devil were in pursuit. The flowing mass became increasingly recognizable to the two friends despite the falling night: It was a panicked ostrich crossing their territory, unaware of their presence.

So, Skhab, guided by his hunter’s instinct, darted after her like an arrow. An hour passed, and the Sloughi still hadn’t returned. The shepherd was beginning to worry, but there was nothing he could do, for night was already spreading its wings over the entire desert. There he was, walking like a madman in the darkness, whistling and calling in vain for his best friend. His throat could no longer produce a sound. Only the jackals answered with their howls to his whistles, and the fear of losing a loved one was already consuming him.

He retraced his steps to protect his flock from possible attacks by ferocious beasts that prowled the area, hoping that his Sloughi would return. Alas, that night, the longest of his life, passed, and Skhab still hadn’t come back. The next day at dawn, the shepherd began searching for him, following the tracks of his run behind the ostrich. After a long walk, the chase no longer formed a straight line and ended in a zigzag.

The shepherd, who was also a skilled hunter, realized that his hunting companion was about to catch his prey and that the chase was coming to an end. Sure enough, he looked up and saw a figure lying in the sand: it was the valiant Skhab, dead, certainly out-of-breath, holding the ostrich, also dead, clearly suffocated, by the throat. The poor shepherd wept for his friend, dug a hole in the ground, and buried him.

But the story of the Sloughi and the ostrich will never be buried. It will forever be etched in the memory of the peoples and passed down from generation to generation through time.