158 TRAVELS IN THE 
enabling them to reach the distant watering-places. On the 
skirts of the Desert, where water is more plentiful, are found 
lions, panthers, elephants, and wild boars. 
Of domestic animals, the only one that can endure the 
fatigue of crossing the Desert, is the camel. By the particular 
conformation of the stomach, he is enabled to carry a supply of 
water sufficient for ten or twelve days; his broad and yielding 
foot, is well adapted for a sandy country ; and by a singular 
motion of his upper lip, he picks the smallest leaves from the 
thorny shrubs of the Desert as he passes along. The camel is, 
therefore, the only beast of burden employed by the trading 
caravans, which traverse the Desert in different directions, 
from Barbary to Nigritia. As this useful and docile creature 
has been sufficiently described by systematical writers, it is 
unnecessary for me to enlarge upon his properties. I shall 
only add, that his flesh, though to my own taste dry and un- 
savoury, is preferred by the Moors to any other; and that the 
milk of the female is in universal esteem, and is indeed sweet, 
pleasant, and nutritive. 
I have observed that the Moors, in their complexion, resemble 
the Mulattoes of the West Indies; but they have something 
unpleasant in their aspect, which the Mulattoes have not. I 
fancied that I discovered in the features of most of them, a 
disposition towards cruelty, and low cunning ; and I could never 
contemplate their physiognomy, without feeling sensible uneasi- 
ness. From the staring wildness of their eyes, a stranger 
would immediately set them down as a nation of lunatics. The 
treachery and malevolence of their character, are manifested 
