'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎183] (192/568)

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AGRICULTUKE AND LAND TENUKE
years ; they are trained to carry loads from the third year, but are
not reckoned fit for work till the sixth ; and though in regions
where they are well treated, as in Nejd, they may work when about
25 years old, they ai'e commonly worn out before reaching half that
age.
The great virtue of the species is patience. Though resenting the
process of being laden, when once started camels will go on until they
fall so utterly exhausted that it may be necessary to destroy them :
it is cheaper to buy three camels than to bring round one which is
exhausted. If well treated they do not bite or kick. The driver makes
the laden beast kneel by uttering a guttural cry like ikh—kh— M /;
if that fails, he strikes the animal on the neck with his hand ; if
there is still resistance, he draws it down by the beard. If a camel
is unruly the Arab controls it by laying hold of the cartilage of its
nose, whereupon it at once becomes amenable. The trot is the
dromedary's easiest pace ; the walk, if long continued, has been
described as back-breaking for the inexperienced. After rain, upon
loamy or slippery soil, camels are useless, slipping so badly that
a halt must be made till the ground is dry.
The Bedawi's camel picks up its food where it can, living on the
roughest grazing, browsing on thorny acacia and tamarisk, and
finding no small part of its sustenance in the or saline bush,
which is to camels as flesh meat is to man. When special effort is
required or grazing insufficient food is carried. The great Hajj
camels do not browse but are fed, as in Syria, on balls of boiled
pulse, with addition of knot-grass forage (tfmrm). The Ageyl usually
carry a mixture of millet and coarse flour called alej, which they
make up every night into balls the size of a man's fist, giving five or
six to each of their camels. In southern Nejd the Arabs roll dates
into balls, stones and all, and those are reputed to be beneficial as
medicine. When the spring pasture begins the camels increase in
vigour and put on fiesh. At this season they will go more than two
months without drinking, the moisture in the succulent fresh plants
sufficing for their needs. In winter they pass a full week waterless
without discomfort; in summer they must usually drink at intervals
of three days, though a good dromedary, carrying only a rider, will
subsist without water for two days longer.
The largest and most powerful Arabian camels are those bred by
the Anazeh ; the fastest come from central Arabia and Oman, though
the breed of the country behind Aden is locally renowned for speed.
The pure-blooded camel does not flourish at a great distance from
its native region. The Turks have used thoroughbred Arabian
dromedaries for carrying dispatches in Mesopotamia and the Syrian
J