1 66 BedotLin Tribes of the Euphrates, [cn.xxnr. 



stand a vast amount of hard weather, but as soon 

 as the shrubs lose their leaves, not being close 

 feeders like the sheep, they find no pasture suited 

 to them, and wander southwards to latitudes where 

 the shrubs are evergreen. The tribes, residing all 

 the year round north of the hills, keep only sheep. 

 The camel-owning Bedouins are perpetually on the 

 move, the Anazeh wandering as far south in winter 

 as to within a few days' march of Jebel Shammar, 

 which geographers generally place in latitude 28°. 

 They have, then, an extreme range of some ten 

 degrees, and in exceptional years may travel two 

 thousand miles between November and May. 



The calving time for camels is in February and 

 early JMarch, when the Anazeh are at the extreme 

 southern limit of their wanderings, so that the milch 

 animals have the advanta2;e of feedino; on certain 

 succulent bushes of wdiich the ghurkudd or, as Mr- 

 Palgrave writes it, the gJiada is the most esteemed. 

 It is a thorny tree growing perhajDs five feet high, 

 with a reddish stem and green fleshy leaves, re- 

 minding one, by its way of growing, a little of dog- 

 wood. Immediately, however, after the calving has 

 begun the tribes move again towards the north, 

 travelling from eight to ten miles daily, and keep- 

 ing pace pretty closely with the growth of the grass, 

 camomile, and other plants their camels love. Their 

 rate of marching never exceeds two miles in the 

 hour, the pace of the youngest camel. 



At this time of year, if the season is a favourable 



