DESERT JOURNEYS. 325 



genius is his guiding star; he tests the drifting sand, measures its 

 waves, and estimates their direction; he reads the points of the 

 compass on a stem of grass. On him every caravan, every traveller 

 depends without mistrust. Ancient and in part most remarkable 

 laws, inscribed in no charter, yet known to all, make him re- 

 sponsible for the welfare of the journey and for the life of each 

 traveller, except in so far as any inevitable dispensation of the 

 Ordainer of destiny may decree otherwise. 



At the sacred hour, the time of afternoon prayer, the leader 

 announces to travellers and drivers that all is ready for the start. 

 The brown men rush around, catching, leading, saddling, and load- 

 ing the camels. Resisting to the utmost the beasts are forced to 

 obey; they seem to have a vivid foreboding of a stretch of toil- 

 some days. Their time has now come. Roaring, screaming, snarling, 

 and grumbling, in obedience to the inimitable guttural commands of 

 their masters and sundry gentle hints from the whips, they sink down 

 on their bended knees; bellowing they adjust themselves to receive 

 the unwelcome burden on their humped backs, and still bellowing 

 they rise with their load. Not a few kick and bite in their 

 efforts to resist being loaded, and it indeed requires all the 

 inexhaustible patience of the drivers to subdue the obstinate 

 creatures. But patience and tact master even camels. As soon as 

 the rebellious beast has consented to kneel, one of the drivers stands 

 up on its bent fore-legs, and with a quick grip seizes the upper part 

 of the muzzle so that by pressing the nose he can stop the camel's 

 breathing; meanwhile two others from opposite sides lift the 

 equally poised burden on to the saddle; a fourth runs fastening 

 pegs through the loops of the ropes; and the fractious camel is 

 loaded before he has quite regained his senses. As soon as all are 

 loaded, the march begins. 



It is now the turn of the well-saddled trotting camels. Each 

 traveller fastens his weapons and indispensable personal luggage 

 to the high, trough-shaped saddle fixed over the hump. He then 

 proceeds to mount his steed. For the novice this is usually a 

 critical business. With a bold spring he must leap into the saddle, 

 and, as soon as he touches this, the camel bolts up. He rises back- 



