DIET, AND POWERS OF ABSTINENCE. 89 



considerable quantities of opium and goor, a 

 kind of inspissated molasses, with their food. 

 Burckhardt^ says, that the Berber traders give 

 their camels twelve pounds of dhourra every two 

 or three days, and that, when loaded with burdens 

 of 600 or 700 pounds, they require a daily allow- 

 ance. The Turkmans, according to the same 

 authority ,2 give their beasts every evening a ball 

 of barley-meal, kneaded with water, and weigh- 

 ing about one pound. The difference in this 

 case is no doubt occasioned by the comparative 

 scarcity and abundance of green fodder, and it 

 may be considered on the whole as established, 

 that the camel thrives and labors with a less 

 proportional supply of nutriment in quantity, 

 and that too of a coarser and cheaper' quality, 

 than is required by any other domestic quadru- 

 ped. The power of the camel to abstain from 

 water is much more frequently and severely 

 tested than his ability to dispense with food. 

 The testimony of travellers, as well as of native 

 observers on this subject varies widely ; but their 

 discrepancies can generally be explained by dif- 

 ference of breed, of season, or by the greater or 

 less succulence of the solid food consumed by 

 the animal. 



The most extraordinary statements I have 



1 Nubia, 193. 2 Syria, 637. 



