74 PUECHASE OF CAMELS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. 



extraordinary swiftness and powers of endurance. With respect to 

 pace, the usual rate upon a journey is about five miles an hour for a 

 " hegin," and I should say not more than two and three-quarters for 

 a loaded camel. 



Loads tell upon camels as upon other animals. A "hegin" usually 

 carries her rider or owner and a slave or other attendant who sits 

 behind his master on the croup of the camel holding on by the hinder 

 peg of the " shedad" or saddle ; and in purchasing camels for expor- 

 tation to America, it would certainly be desirable to send samples of 

 the different kinds of saddles in use as well for loading as for riding. 



On an emergency a good hegin can increase his pace to a much 

 higher rate than that mentioned as his usual pace. I should say to 

 from twelve to fourteen miles an hour, which he might keep up for 

 two or three miles. I have certainly seen begins run at that rate 

 when following hawks in hawking, and when running under fire, as 

 often happened when I was at Aden in 1840, endeavoring to pick 

 them off with light artillery in position on the land side of the 

 isthmus. 



Buckhardt, in his notes on the Bedouins, mentions an extraordinary 

 feat of an '• Abadeh hegin;" but that feat was surpassed by the per- 

 formance of a "Nomany" hegin, which, if I am rightly informed, 

 went, upon the occasion of the late Ibrahim Pashaw's decease, to 

 announce the tidings to Abbas Pacha, from Cairo to Mecca, in nine 

 days. At Mecca the animal is said to have knocked up, and the 

 messenger there to have procured a fresh hegin to continue his journey 

 to Tayf, where Abbas Pacha was. 



•The distance between Cairo and Mecca cannot, according to Scores- 

 by's chart of the Red Sea, be less than nine hundred statute miles, 

 which is tremendous going. 



The weight ustially carried by an ordinary carrying camel is five 

 kantar, or 495 lbs., English net, and the packsaddle must weigh at 

 least fifty more. Some camels may be able to carry more, and for 

 short distances 700 and 800 lbs. are npt an uncommon load for a 

 camel, or even 1,000 lbs. I will now proceed to answer your ques- 

 tions as succinctly as I can, and in the order given. 



Query. At what price could ten or twelve dromedaries be pur- 

 chased? Answer. Nomany dromedaries will cost from $100 to $1,000 

 each ; others, of Arabian breed, may be procured for from $50 to 



Query. How many miles per diem can they travel, and how many 

 hours in each twenty-four ? Answer. On an emergency 100 miles, and 

 all day ; the mail is carried regularly twice a month between Cairo 

 and Suez, distant eighty-four miles, without a halt, in about eighteen 

 hours, and the weight of each camel load cannot be less than 300 

 lbs., if so little. It is, in short, four mail boxes. The ordinary rate 

 of travelling on a hegin does not exceed forty miles in about eight 

 hours per day; when pressed, their daily distance may be increased 

 to sixty, and even seventy miles for many consecutive days. 



Query. At what price could ten or twelve camels for burden be 

 purchased? Answer. The best camels for burden are the "kufury" 

 or village camels, of lower Egypt_, which are worth from 500 to 1,000 

 piasters ($25 to $50) each ; but, perhaps, for general purposes, the 



