NATURAL HISTORY. 151 



" "While being laden they testify their dislike to any packet 

 which looks unsatisfactory in point of size or weight as it is 

 carried past them, although when it is once on their backs 

 they continue to bear it with the patient expression of coun- 

 tenance which I fear passes for more than it is worth. All 

 camels are loaded kneeling, and can go from tw r enty-four to 

 sixty hours without rest, or more than a few mouthfuls of 

 food, which they can crop oft' a thorny bush as they pass, or 

 a handful of barley given them by their master. Parts of the 

 desert are strewn with small dry drab-coloured plants, thorny 

 and otherwise, which the camels continue to crop as they walk, 

 jerking the rider not a little. 



" They are very sparing of drinking. I have taken camels 

 for eleven or twelve days without a drop of w r ater. All of 

 them did not drink even when we came to water, nor did any 

 drink a large quantity, or seem disturbed by the want of it, 

 although the sun was very powerful, and \ve travelled twelve 

 or thirteen hours daily. 



" At first they are difficult to ride. The rider mounts while 

 the animal is kneeling, and sits like a lady, with the right leg 

 round the fore pommel of the saddle. In rising, the Camel 

 suddenly straightens its hind-legs before moving either of the 

 fore-legs, so that if the rider is unprepared, he will be jerked 

 over its ears. It moves the legs of each side alternately, occa- 

 sioning a long undulating motion, which sways the rider to 

 and fro from the loins. The motion, however, is soon learned, 

 and when fatigued, the rider can change sides, or shift his pos- 

 ture in various ways. 



/ 



" Sometimes a traveller places his whole family, wife and 

 children, in one pannier fastened to the saddle, puts himself in 

 another pannier fastened on the opposite side, and then falls in 

 with a caravan and accompanies it. 



" DROMEDARIES the finer and better bred Camels have 

 sparer frames and more endurance, and are principally led by 

 the Bedouins of the desert. They also object either to going 

 up or down a hill. 



" They are fond of kneeling at night just behind the ring of 

 Arabs who squat round the fire, and they stretch their heads 

 over their masters' shoulders to snuff up the heat and smoke, 

 which seems to content them vastly. 



