CAMELS WITH SOUTH AFGHAN EXPEDITION, 1878-9. 703 
sound. This bag is called by native attendants the Palu; it 
usually makes its appearance when the animal is at i( must ” 
(or rutting), is not visible until the fifth, or year of puberty; 
is never seen, although existent, in females, and always 
shows itself on one particular side; the popular and even 
suggestive idea is that it provides means of refreshment by 
bringing water into the mouth and fauces, but a most careful 
post-mortem examination made by me failed to detect any 
duct by which water could enter from the oesophagus. 
Professor Owen, however, suggests that te its.surface shows 
the pores of innumerable mucous crypts, and in the ordinary 
state, in both sexes, the fiap may apply its own secretion, 
and water regurgitated from the storage cells of the stomach 
to the extended surface of the pharynx and root of the 
tongue, so as to allay the feeling of thirst.” He anatomically 
describes it as “ a broad pendulous flap hanging down from 
the fore part of the soft palate and usually resting upon the 
dorsum of the tongue,” and adds, “ in the rutting male the 
palatal flap is greatly enlarged. I have found it extending 
ten inches down the pharynx, passing below the margin of 
the soft palate and the opening of the larynx into the 
oesophagus.” 
I am unable to find any record of a phenomenon frequently 
observed by me during trying marches, and some friends 
of camel experience, whom I have consulted, do not appear 
to have noticed it, viz. that of an oozing of red-coloured fluid 
from some orifice about two inches below the root of the ear. 
The fluid would appear to be perspiration tinged with colour¬ 
ing matter; it is only distilled drop by drop during extreme 
distress, and usually precedes the falling from exhaustion; 
it painfully suggested the idea of the poor animals svoeating 
drops of blood when cruelly urged beyond their powers of 
endurance. In further noticing the general characteristics 
of the camel it may be remarked that, during progression, 
both feet on one side are simultaneously moved, giving the 
peculiar motion familiar to those who have ridden the 
animal; that it sometimes lives from thirty to forty years ; 
and that its utility is not confined to its services as a means 
of transport, for it supplies wholesome flesh and milk as 
articles of food. As an instance of the appreciation of the 
nutritive value of camels’ milk it is known that Arabs, Per¬ 
sians, Afghans, and Punjaubees, frequently resort to it as 
especially nourishing for foals, as it produces greater stamina 
than the milk of any other animal; chemical analysis 
proves it closely allied to mares’ milk in its constitution. 
j Breeds .—With regard to breeds of camels in India, the 
