76 
INSTINCT OF THE CAMEL. 
the tholukh, wliich grows prettily up, and has a poetical 
appearance. The ground at some places was strewed 
with branches, cut down for the goats to feed on. 
Then we came to a small wady full of resou, which 
our marabout calls the " meat of the camel;" 
and all the camels at once stopped, and for a long 
time obstinately refused to proceed. This appeared 
strange to us, but on inquiry we found that the 
sagacious brutes remembered perfectly well that 
until the evening there would be no herbage so 
good, and were determined to have their fill whilst 
there was an opportunity. The drivers, after in- 
dulging them a few moments, took them in flank, and 
their shouts of "Zs« ! IsaT and some blows, at length 
got the caravan out of this elysium of grass into 
the hungry plain beyond. As we proceeded, a cold 
bracing wind began to blow from the east, and con- 
siderably chilled our frames. I had met the same 
weather four years previously. Towards evening, 
however, it became warmer, as it usually does. The 
country was bare and level, like an expanse of dull- 
coloured water ; and the palm-trees that cluster 
near the village rose slowly above the horizon as we 
drew nigh. The sun had gone down, and the 
plain stretched dim and shadowy around before we 
came in sight of the group of hovels wbich form the 
village. As I looked back, the scattered camels 
slowly toiling along could be faintly traced against 
the horizon. 
The Sheikh of Agar received us well this time, 
