172 THE CAMEL 



CHAPTEE VIII 



LOADING 



IN a transport sense this is also a subject of very great 

 weight I am not attempting a pun but as a matter 

 of fact it is, as a great many of the ailments from which 

 camels suffer are caused purely and simply by bad and 

 careless packing. 



Loading a pack animal seems, so some people think, 

 a very simple arrangement, but like many things in 

 this world of ours it is not so easy as it looks, and to 

 be well done it requires a great deal of patience, 

 practice, and experience. Men who have been accus- 

 tomed to camels all their lives, bred up with them from 

 their youth, are naturally the best. I do not mean 

 those who only breed them, but those whose animals 

 are constantly employed carrying goods such as the 

 Hadendowas, Kababish, Bisharin in Egypt, the Brahuis 

 in Beloochistan, and the various tribes in Sind, Panjab, 

 and Afghanistan men of a country, in fact, whose only 

 means of communication across their sandy, waterless 

 deserts is by camel. 

 The secret Careless loading, more frequently than people 



of loading J 



imagine, causes sore backs and sore sides. The great 

 secret in loading a camel or any animal for the matter 

 of that is to balance the load evenly. If this is done no 

 saddle girth is required. The Kababish a tribe in Upper 



