THE CAMEL-DRIVER 43 ticks ; and lastly, and above all, he stinks. The sweat-gland at the back of his head would be well placed for him if he appreciated the odour as does the European, and no wonder that game fly at his approach within a mile or so.

The traveller is well advised each night to ascertain the direction of the wind, as otherwise he will find that his camel-drivers have thoughtfully placed their property in the most advantageous position for assuring him of its presence.

Equally strange are the owners. A class apart, half the year they are nomads, journeying hither and thither, onward or homeward as business leads them, they and their camels becoming almost part of each other. They sleep together ; the man will share his dhurra with his alter ego, and will grumble and complain identically.

The camel-driver is a race to himself ; ordinarily small and slight, often with pronounced Semitic features, he is of the lowest order of Arab intelligence, yet with the sharpened instincts and the endurance of primitive life. Fortified with one skin full of dhurra, and another of water, he will travel hundreds of miles, sometimes by day, at others by night, when he sings alternately with his companions along the straggling line to insure cohesion, and to scare wild beasts from the line of march.

An unaccustomed mule with an unfamiliar saddle proved to be inferior in comfort to the easy trotting camel, and twenty miles of riding over rough tracks with a saddle too much arched proved a trial even u