94 THE CAMEL 



restrain them. All camels that I have worked with, irre- 

 spective of breed, will eat any food or drink any water 

 after a long fast, though on an ordinary occasion they 

 will be particularly fastidious as to the choice of either, 

 and will altogether refuse food that is distasteful to 

 them. The camel is, certainly when being worked, 

 what I should call a greedy animal, especially where 

 green food is concerned, and he has a particular predi- 

 lection, a craving almost, for ' camel thorn ' and similar 

 prickly shrubs. 



It may possibly be as I have more often seen 

 them under unfavourable than favourable conditions 

 that hunger and thirst have overcome discrimination, 

 and driven them to commit indiscretions which in their 

 natural state they would never have done. So much I 

 will readily acknowledge and concede ; but that their 

 discrimination is more probably the result of early 

 training on certain foods only and avoidance of others, 

 and is not exclusively due to natural intelligence, I still 

 maintain. 



