MANAGEMENT OF CAMELS. 
93 
sleep on the sand, which at this place was covered with small 
stones. This was not done from indolence, but from conside- 
ration ; for it was proper to wait for night to take advantage of 
the coolness, when we might travel more at our ease than dur- 
ing the day, in which the calms were sometimes more insup- 
portable than the burning sun. During these calms I could 
not close my eyes, while the Moors slept soundly. The 
same kind of calm often prevails during the night, but then 
there is some compensation in the absence of the sun. In 
the inhabited countries, the night, or rather the latter part 
of the night, is always the most agreeable portion of the 
twenty-four hours. It is at day-break that the flowers 
exhale all their perfumes : the air is then gently agitated, 
and the birds commence their songs. Recollections, at once 
pleasing and painful, turned my thoughts to the south. In 
the midst of this frightful desert could I fail to regret the 
land which nature has embellished ? 
The caravans which traverse the desert are under no 
absolute commander ; every one manages his camels as he 
pleases, whether he has many or few; some have fifteen, 
others six or ten ; and there are individuals who possess not 
more than three ; I have even seen some with only two, but 
these were very poor. Such persons join richer travellers 
and take care of their camels ; in return, they are supplied 
with provisions and water during the journey. 
The Moors always lay out the profits of their journeys 
in the purchase of camels, and none of them travel to Tim- 
buctoo without possessing at least one. The camels do not 
advance in files, as they would do in our roads lined by 
hedges and cultivated lands. On the contrary they move in 
all directions, in groupes, or single, but in this journey their 
route is always between N. N. E. and N. N. W. Those which 
belong to one master keep together, and don ot mix with 
strange camels ; and I have seen as many as fifty grouped 
