SPEED AND GAIT. 135 



march, 1 and Colonel Chesney 2 and Layard give 

 curious accounts of the preparation and even 

 cooking of food on the backs of the camels by 

 the Arab women, during forced marches. Dur- 

 ing a retreat, one woman mounted on a camel 

 loaded with grain, grinds the wheat in a hand- 

 mill ; the flour is passed to another riding an 

 animal that carries the water-sacks ; she mixes 

 and kneads the dough, and passes it to a third, 

 who bakes it in a portable oven or chafing-dish 

 heated with wood or straw. The milking of the 

 female camels is performed with equal facility 

 and as little delay, and thus the march is kept 

 up, without a halt, as long as the animals are 

 able to travel. 



1 Burckhardt, Arabia, 312, describes the robbers who lie 

 in wait for the caravans as jumping up behind the riders 

 when they are asleep, and pillaging the loading ; and in the 

 same volume, page 314, he observes that the camels are ac- 

 customed to stop when their masters fall asleep. 



2 Expedition to the Euphrates, n. 671. 



