200 THE CAMEL 



mortality among the animals is very great, thereby 

 increasing the difficulty of transit. The Afghans 

 manage their ' Kafilas,' or convoys, somewhat differently 

 from the Bedawins, though they both act on the same 

 guiding principle of subordinating everything to the 

 camel. They manage to escape the winter by travel- 

 ling in autumn, and returning to their own country in 

 the early spring. They have no fixed time for march- 

 ing, and no settled marches. Everything time, place, 

 distance has to give way to the camel. They very 

 naturally halt at the best grazing places, sometimes for 

 a day or more, and will then march from 30 to 40 

 miles, perhaps, to another oasis they know of ; but this 

 is, of course, in a bare desert where there is no grazing, 

 and then they let the animal travel his own pace. If 

 the days are too hot they march at night, and vice 

 versd if the nights are too cold they march by day. 

 Like the Arabs, Egyptians, Panjabis, Beloochis, &c., 

 they are acquainted with the habits and diseases of the 

 camel, and if he falls ill they know how to treat him, 

 which I am sorry to say is more than we do. Camels do 

 not thrive unless regularly grazed, so are better adapted 

 for trading than military purposes. I allude to baggagers 

 especially, as Sawaris are distinctly suitable. I ought to 

 have said that the Afghans do not march their camels the 

 forty miles in one stretch, which would take them from 

 sixteen to eighteen hours, unless they are obliged to do 

 so through sheer necessity ; but halt, unload, and rest 

 them for a few hours, generally about half-way. Their 

 system of making everything subordinate to the camel 

 reaches as near perfection as it can, and in this way and 

 no other it is wonderful how much can be got out of him. 



