CHAP. II 
THE NOMADIC LIFE 
31 
when I have not lost more than five per cent on a three months’ 
expedition. In Og&den the Balaad , or small gadfly, is a 
terrible scourge to them, as, to a lesser extent, is the large 
gadfly, or Dug ; they are also infested with ticks, which swell 
to the size of a date-stone, and are seen clinging round the eye- 
lids. In drinking the camels often take in small leeches, which 
fix themselves to the root of the tongue, growing to a great size 
and filling the mouth with blood. 
Should a camel show stiffness, he is at once fired, either by 
raising small blisters with a red-hot ramrod or spear, or by strip- 
ing with hoops of red-hot iron. Open sores have glowing stones 
strapped over them, followed by an application of moist camel- 
dung ; and when off his feed, he is dosed with melted sheep’s tail. 
Thorns are excised from the foot with the bilawa or dagger, and 
the spike — often two inches long — having been extracted, camel- 
clung is applied, and as a general rule the cut soon heals. 
A great cause of sickness is a sore back, brought on by the 
chafing of a load. The worst place is in front of the hump. 
A camel when let out to browse is likely to bite such a sore 
until it festers and becomes full of maggots. There is a fly 
which is on the look-out for these sores, and instead of laying 
eggs deposits live maggots, which crawl about briskly directly 
they leave the body of the fly. A red -beaked bird, very 
common in Ogaden , 1 then attacks the sore, plunging its sharp 
beak again and again into the hole, picking out the maggots 
and decayed mass, and even the sound flesh, until there is a 
cavity into which a man’s clenched fist may be thrust. In this 
condition, the beast should always have a strip of calico, steeped 
in carbolic solution, tied over the wound when sent out to graze, 
to protect it from the birds, a dozen of which can be often seen 
clinging flat to its shoulders, giving out at intervals their long- 
drawn, discordant shrill note. 
The Somali camel does not require grain, but thrives 
entirely on whatever it can pick up by the way. Except at 
certain seasons in Guban, the coast country, there is always an 
abundance of food for them everywhere, in the unlimited ex- 
panse of grass and acacia forest, as they feed and thrive on 
many grasses that ponies will not touch. When grazing, or 
browsing on the leaves of the mimosa jungles, they roam about 
in enormous droves, attended by a few men and women. In 
Ogaden and the Dolbahanta country I have seen driven past a 
1 The rhinoceros bird, called Shimbir Loh, or the “cow-bird,” by Somalis. 
