140 THE CAMEL 



to undergo, is not the thing for the camel, and in the 

 long run undermines his constitution, as it does that 

 of the athlete. I am positive that the more you feed 

 and water the camel during the ordinary routine, 

 within bounds and not to excess, of course, the better 

 fitted he will be on an emergency to abstain from 

 food and water, and the longer will be his fast, than 

 if he had previously undergone a rigorous system of 

 training. I will go further, and say that he will be 

 more capable of sustaining a greater number of these 

 efforts, and that while he will live to do so your trained 

 animal would have long since broken down and suc- 

 cumbed. It stands to reason that when you call on an 

 animal to make such an extraordinary and sustained 

 effort, the better his condition, the more likely he is to 

 go through with it ; and it is also within the bounds of 

 common sense that his condition will be infinitely 

 better if he has been well nourished previous to the 

 trial than if he has been forced to abstain, because in 

 the latter case you at once compel him to fall back on 

 his reserve store, whereas in the former he will have to 

 exhaust his daily supply. Besides, his stamina under 

 these conditions is bound to be greater than that of an 

 animal who has been constantly trained and kept down 

 fine, undermined in fact. 



Overtrain-. It is the same mistake that men with whom ' a little 

 tr 8 breds knowledge is a dangerous thing ' make when in such 

 countries as India and Egypt they take in hand the 

 training of country-bred horses and ponies for racing. 

 Their knowledge of the thoroughbred at home has 

 probably been confined to seeing the ' Derby,' ' Good- 

 wood/ or the ' Oaks ; ' perhaps they may have had the 



