FEEDING 159 



amount of moisture, he requires less. Curious to say, 

 too and yet not curious, for it is only nature asserting 

 itself he is fond of green food, and having no power of 

 discrimination or control he will, as I have previously 

 remarked, especially if not watered, eat until he bursts 

 when he gets into a field of clover, or lucerne, or other 

 cereal. Leaves of all thorny trees and shrubs, saline 

 and prickly grasses, are generally eaten by all camels, 

 and preferred to any other by those accustomed to 

 them, but even those who have not been take to them 

 immediately. A small low shrub with tiny leaves and 

 very long spiky thorns like the mimosa a kind of camel 

 thorn, I believe, and called ' agool ' by the Arabs which 

 grows in Beloochistan, Sind, and on the banks of the 

 Nile in Nubia and the Soudan, I have always found to 

 be an especial favourite, and camels will eat it in pre- 

 ference to anything else. Another little shrub, very 

 moist and juicy, small leaved, with tiny white flower, 

 which grows in the valleys of the Nubian deserts green 

 and fresh in April and May, is very much fancied. 

 ' Camel thorn,' of which there are three varieties, I 

 believe, in Egypt and the Soudan, is much sought after, 

 also the leaves and branches of c tamarisk ' bushes ; 

 hence the necessity of his strong incisors, canines, and 

 canine-like molars, which enable him to crush the twigs, 

 &c. ' Mimosas,' and ' dwarf mimosas,' of which there 

 are many thorny varieties, c halfa ' or < alfa,' a long 

 coarse grass they are partial to, and in the Soudan 

 deserts ' sabas ' and ' tress ' grass, tufts of c yellow 

 grass,' and also a kind of coarse grass are, especially 

 the two former, the chief food of camels, cattle, and 

 goats. The leaves of ' sunt,' from which gum arabic is 



