150 THE CAMEL. 



of the nasty Frenchman Laborde, who allows 

 you 'three shirts' for a two months' trip, and 

 even found one quite sufficient for himself. 

 Many of the desert plateaus lie at a consider- 

 able elevation, and the nights and mornings are 

 sometimes very cool, even in summer. A good 

 bernoos, or poncho, or other convenient wrapras- 

 cal is therefore no superfluity, and in general 

 the Mississippi summer costume (shirt, bowie- 

 knife, revolver and spurs,) is not to be affected. 

 The violent motion of the camel requires free- 

 dom of habiliment, and all your vesture should 

 be wide. Further, go not thinly shod. The 

 edge of the sandstone is sharper than a ser- 

 pent's tooth, and thick soles are de rigueur. 

 Your shaving apparatus you may leave behind 

 altogether. Not that I approve beard and mus- 

 tache, but they are a protection against the 

 scorching sun, and besides, two or three shaves 

 of a sandy beard will hack the edge of your 

 razor like Falstaff's sword, and thereafter shav- 

 ing is impossible. I would fain add some 

 special counsels touching ladies' apparel, but 

 though I have answered to the name of ' Ben- 

 edick, the married man,' more years than I care 

 to confess in this presence, and though my 

 faithful Joan hath interspersed her curtain lec- 

 tures to her Darby, with sundry prelections on 

 this very topic, yet, as a man may say, I have 



