234 



ARABIA^r CAMEL. 



to remain on the ground, and in this situation 

 loads them with a pretty heavy weight, which is 

 never removed but for the purpose of replacing a 

 greater. Instead of allowing them to feed at plea- 

 sure, and to drink when they are dry, he begins 

 with regulating their meals, and makes them gra- 

 dually travel long journies, diminishing, at the 

 same time, the quantity of their aliment. When 

 they acquire some strength, they are trained to 

 the course. He excites their emulation by the 

 example of horses, and in time renders them 

 equally swift and more robust. In fine, after he 

 is certain of the strength, fleetness, and sobriety of 

 his Camels, he loads them both with his own and 

 their food, sets off with them, arrives unperceived at 

 the confines of the desert, robs the first passenger 

 he meets, pillages the solitary houses, loads his 

 Camels with the booty, and if pursued, he is ob- 

 liged to accelerate his retreat. It is on these oc- 

 casions that he unfolds his own talents and those 

 of the Camels ; he mounts one of the fleetest, and 

 conducts the troop, and makes them travel night 

 and day, without almost either stopping, eating, or 

 drinking ; and in this manner he easily performs 

 a journey of three hundred leagues in eight days. 

 During this period of motion and fatigue, his Ca- 

 mels are perpetually loaded, and he allows them, 

 each day, only one hour of repose, and a ball of 

 paste. They often run in this manner nine or ten 

 days, without finding water; and when, by 

 chance, there is a pool at some distance, they 

 scent the water half a league off. Thirst makes 



