196 NA-tURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE 



than it seems to have thought he had any right to do, but 

 not finding the occasion favourable for taking immediate 

 quits, it 'bode its time', nor was that time long in coming. 

 A few days later the same lad had to re-conduct the beast, 

 but unladen, to his own village. When they were about 

 half way on the road, and at some distance from any 

 habitation, the camel suddenly stopped, looked deliberately 

 round in every direction, to assure itself that no one was in 

 sight, made a step forward, seized the unlucky boy's head 

 in his monstrous mouth, and lifting him up in the air, flung 

 him down again upon the earth with the upper part of his 

 skull completely torn off, and his brains scattered on the 

 ground. Having thus satisfied his revenge, the brute quietly 

 resumed his pace towards the village as though nothing 

 were the matter, till some men, who had observed the whole, 

 though unfortunately at too great a distance to be able to 

 afford timely help, came up and killed it.'' 

 The Terrors Terrible stories are told of the sufferings some- 

 of the Desert, times experienced by camels and Arabs alike 

 on desert journeys. Burckhardt gives the following narrative 

 which is quoted by Captain Brown. "In the month of 

 August, a small caravan prepared to set out firom Berber to 

 Daraou. They consisted of five merchants and about thirty 

 slaves, with a proportionate niunber of camels. Afraid of 

 the robber Naym, who at that time was in the habit of way- 

 laying travellers about the wells of Nedjeym, and who had 

 constant intelligence of the departure of every caravan from 

 Berber, they determined to take a more easterly road, by 

 the well of Owareyk. They had hired an Ababde guide, who 

 conducted them in safety to that place, but who lost his way 

 from thence northward, the route being little frequented. 

 After five days' march in the mountains, their stock of water 

 was exhausted, nor did they know where they were. They 

 resolved, therefore, to direct their course towards the setting 

 sun, hoping thus to reach the Nile. After experiencing two 



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