SPEED AND GAIT. 133 



Jomard, citing the authority of Col. Pretot, 

 says that the violent motion of the animals of 

 the dromedary corps sometimes brought on a 

 spitting of blood in the riders, and although 

 Carbuccia denies, what has been often affirmed, 

 that the movement produces a nausea like sea- 

 sickness, Burnes, it will be remembered, travelling 

 in a kajaivah^ experienced this inconvenience. 

 " The rider of the mahari," says Daumas,^ 

 " strengthens himself by two very tight belts or 

 girdles, one about the loins and abdomen, the 

 other under the armpits." 



The security of the seat, though at once felt 

 by all who have mounted the camel, seems hardly 

 reconcilable with the violence of his motion, and 

 is not easily explained ; but nothing is more rare 

 than a fall from his back, except when he is mov- 

 ing at a much more rapid pace than his ordinary 

 amble of five miles an horn- or thereabouts. A 

 writer already more than once quoted, says : " To 

 me, who am no graduate of Astley's, and so sorry 

 an equestrian that I respect Alexander more for 

 the taming of Bucephalus than for the conquest 

 of India, this security is a great point ; you may 

 sit sidewise or backwards, with feet resting in 

 stirrups, or legs crossed or dangling, and arms 

 folded or akimbo, with no fear that your beast 

 will kick up or stumble and pitch you over his 



1 Mceurs et coutumes de I'Algerie, 354. 



