PURCHASE OF CAMELS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. 117 



Itch is to smear the animal all over with tar, which is said to cure it, 

 but as far as I could see, not until the skin was almost taken oif the 

 body, and in that condition they are the most pitiable looking animals 

 it is possible to imagine. It only goes to show that people in Egypt 

 who have the care of camels are extremely ignorant, and cause tVie 

 complaints to assume a worse character by their treatment of them. 

 I had two cases of violent itch occur with the Egyptian dromedaries 

 on board ship, caused by their lying on the same bed of hay for three 

 days during a gale. I cured them both effectually in five days by 

 giving them each a handful of the flour of sulphur in their oats, and 

 rubbing the parts of the body attacked with sulphur, mixed with 

 olive oil. At the end of five days the bodies of the animals were 

 washed with castile soap and tepid water. 



It is quite amusing to listen to one of the native doctors, (camel doc- 

 tors,) and hear him give an account of the medicines used in the 

 treatment of camels. I heard of one person in Cairo, who had a 

 valuable dromedary who was sick with some ordinary complaint. He 

 boiled down a young sheep in molasses and made the dromedary 

 swallow it half scalding hot. Another who had been practising his 

 art without success, made a requisition for a " chameleon's tail " to 

 tickle the camel's nose^ without which he said he could not effect a 

 cure. Another, to my knowledge, asked for a i3iece of cheese to cure 

 an animal of a slight cold, and the same person recommended to me 

 to administer an ounce of tea mixed with five grains of gunpowder, 

 to cure a camel with swollen legs. Cauterizing with a hot iron is a 

 favorite remedy for many diseases, and there is scarcely an animal 

 that has not somewhere about it the marks of a hot iron. In pur- 

 chasing camels, it is very necessary to examine carefully if they have 

 been cauterized, and in what places about the body, for in some spots 

 it denotes an incurable disease. For directions to persons who are 

 going to purchase, I would recommend them to a pamphlet written 

 by "LinantBey," a French engineer, who has resided many years 

 in Egypt, and who gives the most sensible directions about all mat- 

 ters connected with the dromedary. It is the best and only good 

 account I have met with anywhere. Among the animals I received 

 on board were two remarkably handsome ones, one a ''Nomanieh" 

 or supposed to be, from Oman, the other a " Sennai/' from Nubia ; 

 the former is supposed to be the swiftest, easiest, and most enduring ; 

 the easy motion of this animal is owing to its moving hind leg and 

 fore leg on opposite sides at the same time, or I should say rather, 

 that every leg is moved in very rapid succession ; this gait is natural 

 to a thorough bred Oman, but has to be taught to the cross-breeds. 

 The " Becharieh " dromedary and those of Mount Sinai, and other 

 parts of Egypt, move both legs on one side together, which gives 

 them a rolling motion and not quite so easy as the other. To acquire 

 the Nomanieh gait, it is necessary to commence with the dromedary 

 at the age of one year ; a noose is first placed around his nose with a 

 small rope, and an Arab runs ahead of him, pulling him along, while 

 another runs at his side, striking him lightly on the head or neck, to 

 make him keep his head near the ground ; the harder the Arab in 

 advance pulls the tighter the noose becomes, and the dromedary 



