WHERE IS THE TARIM ? 837 
a wound so small that we had some difficulty in discovering 
it, for the flow of blood remained in the hair. 
He was a magnificent specimen. But the desert was 
spying upon us 5 we durst not tarry, even to save a second 
wild camel’s skin. The men however cut the fat out of the 
humps ; it proved a welcome addition to our rice-puddmg‘ 
(pillau). We also took a good supply of the hair, for 
twisting into ropes, for we needed some. 
The humps on this camel were much more developed. 
The anterior hump rested on seven spinous processes of 
the dorsal vertebrm ; the posterior hump on six. The 
seven processes were very prominent ; whereas the six 
scarcely projected at all above the general level of the 
spinal cord. Between these apophyses, or spinous pro- 
cesses, stretched the tough yellow tendons ; and as the fat 
was merely kept in place at the top by connective tissue, it 
was easy to cut it out. The carcass was allowed to remain 
where it was, as Ahmed said, a choice dastarkhan (tit-bit) 
for the wolves and foxes. The first camel that we shot and 
skinned became as hard as a lump of ice during the night ; 
and no doubt the live ones would fight shy of the places 
where their dead relatives lay for a long time to come. 
We had not gone far before we surprised a second herd 
of five wild camels, one male, two females, and two young 
ones; these also were incautious. After moving about 
fifty paces or so away, they stopped and waited until we 
were quite near ; then they shambled a few yards further. 
This manceuvre was repeated three times. Islam shot 
a she-camel before 1 had time to stop him. The ball 
struck her in the joint of the right foreleg, and she 
immediately fell, dropping into the posture in which 
camels usually rest — that is, on the callosities at the knees 
and breast. She turned her head to the left, opened 
her mouth, thrust her lips into the sand, and screamed 
wildly with pain. Although she never looked up at us, 
I fancied I read in her dying glance an expression oi 
hatred and terror of her ancestors’ tyrants, who had now 
come, as it were, to punish the camels for fleeing from 
captivity. Just as the knife was about to put an end 
