4^ Account o/Alexandeu Scott's Captivity 
preserved^ and the flesh eaten. They carried with them two 
jack-asses, and many dogs, chiefly of the greyhound and blood- 
hound breed, with which the people killed hares, foxes, and 
v/olves ; and on the flesh of all these this tribe occasionally fed. 
When travelling, the sheep and goats of each family were kept 
in separate droves. The animals go close together, except 
where they meet with some vegetation, when they spread, but 
are easily brought together by the whistling of their driver, or 
by the sound of his horn. The latter is the most usual me- 
thod, and soon collects the flocks around the driver, an effect 
supposed to arise from their apprehension of wild beasts, which 
drives them to the protection of their keeper. It is said, that 
they can distinguish by the smell the approach of a wolf at the 
distance of half a mile. 
The tents were pitched every night, and the camels and 
flocks belonging to the family were disposed in front of the 
family tent, near which flres were kindled for cooking. Should 
there be any apprehension of an attack during the night, all the 
tents are pitched in a circular encampment called Douar, with- 
in which all the cattle are driven, and the men lie among the 
camels, which immediately rise up on the first alarm. 
The sheep and goats are very different from those of Eng- 
land, being much larger, with longer legs, and are much accus- 
tomed to travelling. When they have sufficient food, they will 
keep up with the camels on a journey, and they can occasionally 
run as fast as a greyhound. 
The camels can go long without food or drink ; they browse 
on the scanty herbage of the desert, where they find it, and 
drink as much at once as Avill serve them a long time. Scott 
never saw or heard that this animal ever swallowed charcoal^ 
and thinks, that had this substance ever been its food, he must 
have observed it, as he has often seen the camels reduced to 
great extremity for want of herbage. 
For the first four or five days, the route of the caravan lay 
over hard clayey ground, very barren, producing only wild 
bushes, but not a blade of grass. They then came to a sandy 
district called El-e-Buscharah, consisting of hills and valleys of 
sand, having water only at a deep well about ten miles south- 
wards of the place where they entered on it. From this well 
3 
