154 Bedouin Tribes of the Etiphrates. [ch. xxn. 



want of sense in this? Much as I love horses, I 

 liold them on both these points below the camel. 



Let anyone, who doubts this, take camels and 

 horses on a journey and see how each will act. The 

 horse, if not restrained by his rider, will begin the 

 day with a frolic, heels in air, and end it in a 

 shambling jog, stumbling and wearied out. If care- 

 fully ridden, however, he will last through the day, 

 and come in hungry at night, and hunger is what 

 the traveller loves best to see in his beast ; so he 

 turns him loose to feed. Not at all ! Bucephalus 

 has seen a rival, and Avith a snort and a scream he 

 is at him hoof and tooth. The grass may be sweet, 

 but fighting is sweeter ; and, unless his master inter- 

 vene, there is little chance of his being fit for another 

 day's journey. At some risk he is seized and bound, 

 tethered we will say to a stout peg, and before 

 morning, if he have not broken loose, he will be 

 found inextricably entangled in his halter, starving 

 because he cannot get at the grass, and with the 

 rug, given him by his master, to keep him warm, 

 dislodged by his attempts to roll, and hanging from 

 the surcingle. His master comes to feed him, and 

 spreads his cloak upon the ground, and heaps up 

 corn before him. The horse takes a mouthful, 

 turnino; round the while to bite his flank, and 

 scattering half upon the ground. Then in another 

 instant he has pawed the heap into mire beneath 

 his hoofs. 



Meanwhile, the " stupid, ill-tempered " camel, 



