THE CARAVAN. 137 



opportunity for observing and noting in detail, 

 and thus enjoy a combination of advantages 

 hardly attainable in any other mode of travel. 

 Such an attendant is almost indispensable if you 

 desire to make botanical or mineralogical collec- 

 tions, or if you aim at anything beyond a mere 

 general view of the phenomena by which you 

 are surrounded. Without him, you will hardly 

 be able to stop your beast ] until after you have 

 lost sight of the flower or mineral that has attract- 

 ed you, and if you finally succeed in overcoming 

 his repugnance to lag behind the rest of the car- 

 avan, and persuading him to kneel and let you 

 dismount, he will be sure to be up and away 

 while you are gone back for your treasure, leav- 

 ing you to pant after him when you have satis- 

 fied your curiosity or bagged your specimen. 

 Again, the wadys through which your road lies 

 are sometimes of considerable width, and as the 

 camel chooses his path without any reference 

 to the picturesque, it may happen that some 

 other route would better suit your view-hunting 

 propensities. In this case, you cannot readily 

 rein him out of the track as you might a horse, 

 and then make up for lost time by following 

 on at a gallop. Any deviation from the beaten 

 path costs you, first, a hard struggle with your 

 self-willed beast, and then, if you prevail upon 



1 Burckhardt, Syria, 445. " The camel cannot be stopped 

 while his companions are moving." 



