CAMELS WITH SOUTH AFGHAN EXPEDITION, 1878-9. 709 
parative plain sailing to Quetta, where a day or two’s rest 
might have revived the jaded. Another very trying road is 
the slippery one. The camel is especially afraid of such, and 
his anxiety proportionately increases the amount of exertion, 
especially when wet nullahs are met with, and many is the 
one that ended his life’s journey at these. Irregular, insuffi¬ 
cient, and unsuitable food, I maintain to have been a fruit¬ 
ful source of loss which might have been avoided, but this 
will be considered under the head of “ Methods of obviating 
Diseases.” Perseverance when the animal was obviously 
unfit for further exertion was a crying evil. I saw camels 
loaded standing day after day, because they were unable 
from weakness to rise if the burden was imposed when they 
were lying down in the usual manner, the consequence in one 
instance being that the poor brute, literally worked to death, 
joined the melancholy party of corpses at the foot of the hill 
just alluded to; this inability was esteemed obstinacy by the 
Serwan, the stick was freely used, and in the one instance 
my knife was borrowed to cut a fresh slit in the nostril for 
insertion of the leading cord, in order that, by such torture, 
the victim might be induced to travel a mile or two further; 
I little knew for what purpose the instrument was required. 
Suffering from weather undoubtedly added to the list of 
casualties, and was in many instances an unavoidable cause. 
At Abdulla Khan Ka Killa, camels laid for forty-eight 
hours in melting snow amounting to a freezing mixture. No 
wonder at the stagnation of blood which produced conges¬ 
tion of the lungs and its consequences. I suggested that 
they should be compelled to move about in order to restore 
circulation, but the Serwans could not be induced to make 
the necessary exertion which would, in all probability, have 
been equally beneficial to themselves; indeed the cruelty 
and neglect of these persons cannot be exaggerated. Too 
indifferent were they frequently even to procure food for 
their charge, unless it was absolutely brought to them. It 
was the general impression amongst officers of the expedi¬ 
tion that this indifference in a great measure arose from the 
idea of compensation being awarded for all animals lost 
after leaving Dadur, the Serwans considering it more to 
their advantage that the beasts should die, and so release 
them from further attendance. The imposition of undue 
loads was frequent, hardly any consideration of the capa¬ 
bility of the animal being taken, and, not unfrequently, these 
were increased by private stores of the attendants them¬ 
selves, and the addition of their own weight to save the 
labour of walking. The load sanctioned by authority, viz. 
