Eagles Are Circling

In our travels throughout the world, we have slept in an orchard of line trees, in a clearing among a cluster of olive branches, under a tree of monkeys, branches of apricots, and been awakened by falling figs. But as yet we had never spent the night under a sky full of eagles.

At first there was only one. He circled us as we ate dinner. He flew so low that we could hear his wings hitting the air and see his talons start to pull down as he swooped and then lifted again. "What does he want?" I wondered. I looked over at Butar gnawing on the edge of a piece of mutton fat. Ah ha!

Two more eagles appeared and then a third and forth. Butar threw a piece of fat in the air and one of the eagles swooped in a nose dive, catching it right above us. Four feet of wings ripped through the air.

Butar didn't get to eat much of his dinner that night. We threw most of it up in the air and it was consumed before it began its descent. The eagles hung around even after the food was gone but eventually they circled higher and higher until they were only three inch dashes way above us. Near our tent I found a cluster of feathers. I picked out two of the best ones and stuck them in the van. For the rest of the trip I could look at them and be reminded of how close we had been to these eagles and how magnificent they had been.