THE CAMEL. 197 



days' thirst, fifteen slaves and one of the merchants died; 

 another of them, an Ababde, who had ten camels with him, 

 thinking that the animals might know better than their mas- 

 ters where water was to be found, desired his comrades to 

 tie him fast upon the saddle of his strongest camel, that he 

 might not fall down from weakness, and thus he parted from 

 them, permitting his camels to take their own way; but 

 neither the man nor his camels were ever heard of afterwards. 

 On the eighth day after leaving Owareyk, the survivors came 

 in sight of the mountains of Shigre, which they immediately 

 recognized; but their strength was quite exhausted, and 

 neither men nor beasts were able to move any farther. 

 Lying down under a rock, they sent two of their servants, 

 with the two strongest remaining camels, in search of water. 

 Before these two men could reach the mountain, one of them 

 dropped off his camel, deprived of speech, and able only to 

 move his hands to his comrade as a sign that he desired to 

 be left to his fate. The survivor then continued his route; 

 but such was the effect of thirst upon him, that his eyes grew 

 dim, and he lost the road, though he had often travelled 

 over it before, and had been perfectly acquainted with it. 

 Having wandered about for a long time, he alighted under 

 the shade of a tree, and tied the camel to one of its 

 branches : the beast, however, smelt the water, (as the Arabs 

 express it) and, wearied as it was, broke its halter, and set 

 off galloping in the direction of the spring, which, as after- 

 wards appeared, was at half an hour's distance. The man, 

 well understanding the camel's action, endeavoured to follow 

 its footsteps, but could only move a few yards; he fell ex- 

 hausted on the ground, and was about to breathe his last, 

 when Providence led that way from a neighbouring encamp- 

 ment, a Bisharye Bedouin, who, by throwing water upon 

 the man's face, restored him to his senses. They then 

 went hastily together to the water, filled the skins, and, 

 returning to the caravan, had the good fortune to find the 



