I myself have seen a camel head the caravan when we were four days from a well, the waters of which he had tasted four years before. There is a well-known case of one camel that saved a caravan which was going from Dakhla Oasis to the Oasis of Ouenat. The guide, who had never been to the place before, but was heading toward it going by the description of another Bedouin, had lost his bearings, and the caravan wandered for twelve days aimlessly. The water was exhausted, and they had lost hope. Suddenly one of the camels headed the caravan, and they followed him. That camel had been to Ouenat a few years before, and when he was two days’ journey from Ouenat he “smelled the place,” as the Bedouins say, and landed the caravan right at one of the wells.
In winter the well-trained camel can go for a fortnight without water, in summer up to twelve days. The Bedouins try to feed their camels always on grazing grass if they can, but when they take them to the daffa or long waterless trek, they are fed on dried dates and, when the Bedouin can afford it, on barley. Most of the camels found in Cyrenaica are hamla or pack-camels. The best trotting-camels are Tebus or Touaregs, beautiful white beasts with slim limbs and graceful lines. The average good day’s work of the pack-camel is a distance of twenty-five miles. The thoroughbred Touareg does up to forty, and has been known to do seventy miles at one stretch.
The camel can become a very affectionate beast and very devoted to his master. Well-trained trotting-camels or hejins refuse to get up with anybody on their back but their own master.
As a rule the water is carried on the older and wiser camels, who go sedately with no attempt to frolic. They realize that they are carrying the most valuable asset of the whole caravan, and therefore, the moment the day’s trek is over and we are at the hour of unloading, these older and wiser camels stand apart from the rest for fear the sheepskins they are carrying be bumped. I have also seen camels walk round the camp and approach the sheepskins lying on the ground, arranged and covered for the night; the camels would take great care to walk round them. There was one camel that was trained for a long time to carry my tent and all my books and instruments. He was only chosen for that task because of his being a strong and an old camel. Every morning when the loading started he used to come of his own accord and barrak near my tent and, in his usual supercilious way, wait for the load to be put on his back.
The camel is a jealous husband or a faithful wife as the case may be. The female camels will never leave their lord and master and always follow him, while woe betide any adventurous male camel who dares to attempt to “butt in.”
Each morning and evening Bu Helega and I rode together and talked about camels and the desert and Bedouin history. I was careful to ask no direct questions, for the Bedouins are suspicious people ready to mistrust your motives. But casual remarks easily bring out interesting comments and information.
“There was a time,” said the venerable old man, “when Kufra was unknown to our people. A Bedouin of the Chawazi tribe, from El Obayad, a small oasis near Buttafal Well, noticed a crow which kept flying away to the south and coming back again as regularly as the sun rises. He watched it for some time and then set out to follow its course southward. He finally reached Taiserbo and, after a day’s stop on the outskirts of the oasis, managed to get enough water to take him back. On his return he told his tribe of date-trees and water in the heart of the desert. They formed an expedition which set out for Taiserbo and conquered it, after which they went on to Buzeima, Ribiana, and eventually to Kufra itself. So the Bedouins came to Kufra.”
TUAREGS IN KUFRA
Men of the tribe rather than the women conceal their faces, and even when they eat they do not remove their veils. This is accomplished by the use of a specially constructed spoon.