Spiked-wheel trap 'efetaw'. Wheel made from straw of 'afezu' grass covered with strips of pale and dark green cloth. Wooden spikes inserted through cloth.
Item number 28 on Jeremy Keenan's item list. Spiked wheel trap called 'efetaw' in Tamahaq. Keenan acquired this object from Sidi Mohammed ag Ahmadu of the Kel Hirafok people. Price paid: 10 dinar. Keenan refers to fig 113 in Johannes Nicolaisen's 'Ecology and culture of the pastoral Tuareg: with particular reference to the Tuareg of Ahaggar and Ayr' (Nicolaisen, 1963, p 159, fig 113). Nicolaisen writes that the spiked wheel trap connected with a noosed rope ('tarant', see object number 1971.1024) attached to a piece of wood ('agula') is used to catch gazelle, Barbary sheep, and donkeys. To trap a gazelle, for example, the Tuareg make a great many traps which are placed in the sand around young acacias upon which the animals feed (Nicolaisen, 1963, p 160). See also Lhote (1951, pp 112-113) and Brouin (1950, p 454).
