THE CAMEL. 199 



breezes. The Arab, of course, brings water-skins for Ms own 

 supply. All these camels were breeding-stock. They live on 

 thorns and the top shoots of the gum-arabic tree, although it is 

 armed with the most frightful spikes. But very little comes amiss 

 to the camel ; he will eat dry wood to keep up digestion, if in 

 want of a substitute. Instinct or experience has taught him to 

 avoid the only tempting-looking plants that grow in the desert, 

 — ^the green rusha-bush, which is full of milk-coloured juice, and 

 a creeper that grows in the sand where nothing else will grow, and 

 which has- a bitter fruit like a melon. I was surprised to learn 

 that the leopard does not dare to attack the camel, whose tall and 

 narrow flanks would seem to be fatally exposed to such a supple 

 enemy. Nature, however, has given him a means of defence in 

 his iron jaw and long powerful neck, which are a full equivalent 

 for his want of agility. He can also strike heavily with his feet, 

 and his roar would intimidate many foes. I never felt tired of 

 admiring this noble creature, and through the monotony of the 

 desert would watch for hours his ceaseless tread and unerring 

 path. Carrying his head low, forward, and surveying everything 

 with his black, brilliant eye, he marches resolutely forward, and 

 quickens his pace at the slightest cheer of his rider. He is too 

 intelligent and docile for a bridle ; besides, he lives on the march, 

 and with a sudden sweep of the neck will seize, without stopping, 

 the smallest straw. When the day's march is over, he passes the 

 night in looking for food, with scarcely an hour to repose his 

 limbs, and less than that for sleep. He closes the eye fitfully, the 

 smallest noise will awake him. When lying down for rest every 

 part of the body is supported ; his neck and head lie lightly along 

 the sand, a broad plate of bone under the breast takes the weight 

 off his deep chest, and his long legs lay folded under him, sup- 

 porting his sides like a ship in a cradle." 



Captain Peel overrated their intelligence, or other travellers 

 underrate it. Sir Samuel Baker in his work, "The Albert 

 N'Yanza," gives from personal experience quite a different account 

 of the animal. On one occasion a man ran into his tent with the 

 news that one of the camels had dropped down and was dying ; and 

 he writes, " The report was too true. He was poisoned by a well- 



