52 THE CAMEL 



V.-S. Steel, who was in Afghanistan 1878-80, says 

 no case of a camel dying from eating poisonous herbs 

 ever came under his notice, while I have seen several 

 deaths in the same country occur through camels eating 

 poisonous shrubs, such as the oleander bush, ' leghunai,' 

 and 4 gangao,' which are the commonest and the most 

 deadly up there. Deaths from the same cause have 

 also come under my notice in the Soudan, and ' aroog,' 

 a poisonous plant which grows in the desert, is often 

 eaten by them ; also a parasitic plant named ' nikabit,' 

 with very brilliant green leaves, is devoured eagerly, 

 and I have been informed of this fact by the natives 

 over and over again. 



Sir Samuel Baker, in his ' Albert Nyanza,' substan- 

 tiates my assertion, and bears witness to the extreme 

 dulness of the camel ; for while other animals in feeding 

 select wholesome herbs, he is stupid enough to eat in- 

 discriminately every green vegetable, and is thus often 

 poisoned through eating a plant known to Arabs as 

 ' camel poison,' and on this account it is customary to 

 set watchers over them while grazing in districts where 

 this plant is found. With all deference to V.-S. Steel's 

 opinion, I am still quite convinced that the camel does 

 eat poisonous herbs. Whether this arises from his 

 inability to distinguish one from the other, in spite of 

 the acute sense of smell which is attributed to him, or 

 is due to the fact of his being greedy and voracious, 

 or yet again is the outcome of stupidity, is a moot 

 point, though I am more inclined to attribute it to the 

 two latter reasons than to the first. 



Tenacity Tenacity of life the camel possesses in. a marked 

 degree in comparison to its physical strength. This is 



