the season and the quality of food. Precisely as in
Europe sheep require but little water when fed upon
turnips, so does the camel exist almost without drinking
during the rainy season when pastured upon succulent
and dewy herbage. During the hottest season,
when green herbage ceases to exist in the countries
inhabited by camels, they are led to water every alternate
day, thus they are supposed to drink once in
forty-eight hours; but when upon the march across
deserts, where no water exists, they are expected to
eariy a load of from five to six hundred pounds, and
to march twenty-five miles per day, for three days,
without drinking, but to be watered on the fourth day.
Thus a camel should drink the evening before the
start, and he will carry his load one hundred miles
without the necessity of drinking; not, however, without
suffering from thirst. On the third day's march,
during the hot simoom, the camel should drink if
possible; but he can endure the fourth day.
This peculiarity of constitution enables the camel to
overcome obstacles of nature that would otherwise be
insurmountable. Not only can he travel over the
scorching sand of the withering deserts, but he never
seeks the shade. When released from his burden he
kneels by his load in the burning sand, and luxuriates
in the glare of a sun that drives all other beasts to
shelter. The peculiar spongy formation of the foot
renders the camel exceedingly sure, although it is
usual to believe that it is only adapted for flat, sandy
plains. I have travelled over mountains so precipitous
that no domestic animal but the camel could
have accomplished the task with a load. This capability
is not shared generally by the race, but by a
breed belonging to the Hadendowa Arabs, between
the Eed Sea and Taka. There is quite as great a
variety in the breeds of camels as of horses. Those
most esteemed in the Soodan are the Bishareen'; they
are not so large as others, but are exceedingly strong
and enduring.
The average value of a baggage camel among the
Soodan Arabs is fifteen dollars, but a good “ hygeen/’
or riding dromedary, is worth from fifty to a hundred
and fifty dollars, according to his capabilities. A
thoroughly good hygeen is supposed to travel fifty
miles a day,-and to continue this pace for five days,
carrying only his rider and a small water skin or girba.
His action should be so easy that his long ambling
trot should produce that peculiar movement adopted
by a nurse when hushing a child to sleep upon her
knee. This movement is delightful, and the quick
elastic step of a first-class animal imparts an invigoratr
ing spirit to the rider, and were it not for the intensity