1846. J Rough Notes on the Zoology of Candahar. 163 



The Camel with one hump is in use throughout Afghanistan, but is 

 of a much more robust and compact form than our Indian variety, and 

 well suited to the hilly regions it often has to traverse. 



Nothing can be more erroneous, however, than the common belief 

 that the Camel is a hardy animal ; so opposed to this is the Afghan opi- 

 nion, that they used to exclaim with astonishment at the indifference 

 generally shown by us to the comfort of this useful creature. They 

 were often heard to say, " you take immense trouble, and incur great 

 expense in pampering your men and horses, but the camel is altogether 

 neglected, although if you wish him to thrive and do his work, you 

 must both feed him well, and clothe and house him too, in winter and in 

 wet weather." In every case where practicable, they acted up to this 

 advice themselves, and no sooner does an Afghan cafilah come to its 

 ground after a march, than the camels are seated round a heap of leaves, 

 straw or grain. With us, on the contrary, our poor brutes after wander- 

 ing along from four o'clock in the morning till two or three o'clock in 

 the afternoon, with heavy loads badly fixed upon their backs, no sooner 

 arrived in camp than they were turned out to pick up a morsel around 

 the tents over stoney plains, which produced scarcely any plants of suf- 

 ficient size to furnish a bite even for sheep, and after a couple of hours 

 passed in an ineffectual search for food, the starving brutes were driven 

 back to camp, and tethered for the night, in most instances without a 

 particle of grain or other food. What wonder then that dozens could 

 not rise beneath a load on the following morning, and were left to be 

 the prey of ravens or the prize of the almost as ravenous Afghan ! Let 

 those who prized their cattle, and made some efforts to clothe and feed 



camels laden with salt from the borders of the great desert, which " were preceded by 

 a party of Tuarick merchants, whose appearance was grand and imposing. They en- 

 tered all full trot, riding on handsome camels, some of them red and white, and others 

 black and white." (' Clapperton's' 2nd 'Expedition,' p. 266.) These parti-coloured 

 individuals remind us of the Peruvian Alpaca. In Arabia, and in all northern Africa, 

 much attention is bestowed upon regulating the propagation of the best sort of camels, 

 but especially of the lighter kinds or dromedaries,— termed Asharry and Mahairy, 

 in Barbary. "Those of Oman," writes the late Lieut. Wellsted, " enjoy a deserved 

 celebrity for strength and swiftness. Nejd is equally the nursery of the camel as of 

 the horse ; but the Omary, in all ages, is celebrated in the songs of the Arabs as 

 producing the fleetest; their legs are more slender and straight; their eyes more pro- 

 minent and sparkling; and their whole appearance denotes them to be of higher line- 

 age than the ordinary breed of the animal." ('Travels in Arabia,' 11,291.) The 

 smallness of the head is a conspicuous and characteristic feature of a true dromedary.— 

 Cur. As, Soc. 



