CHARACTERISTICS AND TEMPERAMENT 55 



plaintive. As a rule, I have found the younger the 

 camel the noisier he is, and, what is worse, he will give 

 tongue without almost any reason for it, and howl if 

 you simply go near him. If you do so with the object 

 of mounting he will howl at you in the most dismal 

 fashion, turning his long, unwieldy neck and head, open- 

 mouthed, as if he were going to bite you, and looking at 

 you out of his beautiful eyes in a semi-reproachful 

 can't-you-let-me-alone kind of way. He will continue 

 grunting until you have mounted and got some little 

 distance on your way, when he will cease, but not 

 altogether, breaking out occasionally, especially when 

 you want him to go a bit faster. Of course, some are 

 noisier than others, but for any exceptional service Special 

 where silence and secrecy are necessary, and steadiness 

 a sine qua non, never employ a young or an untrained 

 camel. Two or three times when stalking gazelle in 

 the Nubian desert I have lost a splendid chance and 

 easy shot through having a young camel, whom I had 

 dismounted and left two or three hundred yards behind, 

 howling without any seeming cause, except because he 

 had been left to himself. Another thing is that if left 

 alone like this a camel will get up and bolt, and leave 

 you perhaps in an awkward predicament, unless you 

 have previously taken the precaution of securing him 

 firmly a most necessary measure always. 



The older the camel, the quieter and more amenable The older 

 he is, either giving a gentle grunt of dissent or, if well 

 .trained, more frequently remaining quite silent, not 

 even deigning to look at you appealingly, but treating 

 you as if he had made up his mind to tolerate you and 

 make the best of things. The older he grows the 



