Page 22 - A Hand Book of Arabia Vol 2_Neat

CHAPTER I

METHODS OF TRANSPORT

The Camel, the Horse, and the Ass
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The general agent of communication in Arabia is the camel.
Wheeled vehicles ply only in and near Aden and (rarely) in and
near San'a (as far as Bo‘an on the Hodeidah road, and Raudhah on
the Khamir road) ; they are not used on the Jiddah-Mecca road,
but it is said to be possible to drive from Mecca to Ta’if by making
a long detour northward via Seil. But for the ingrained conserva­
tism of the Arab, wheeled traffic might be extended in various
directions over hard desert; a motor-car containing Turkish officers
and one of the Rashid family recently (1916) went from Ha’il to
Mu'adhdham in a single day. Doughty notes that carts might follow
the Hajj route between Damascus and Meda’in Salih, since the
Turks annually send a field-piece on its carriage there and back
with the relief expedition which meets the returning pilgrims, and
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he thinks that even the ‘Aqabah would not be too difficult. For *
women, sick persons, or those who would travel at ease, litters were
borne by camels and mules on the above route in 1876.
The riding-camel (dhelul, plur. dhulul), is almost always a female^ . #
the burden-camel is usually male. The life of camels may extend „
to forty or fifty years ; they are trained to carry loads from the
third year, but are not reckoned fit for regular work till the sixth
(see p. 19) ; and though in regions where they are well treated, as
in Nejd, they may work when about twenty-five years old, they are
commonly worn out before reaching half that age. The fact that
the camel is incapable of attachment, and indifferent to the rider
is emphasized by Palgrave, who describes it as ‘ from first to last
an undomesticated and savage animal, rendered serviceable by
stupidity alone, . . . never tame, though not wide awake enough
to be exactly wild ’. But those who travel in deserts, where
one’s life depends on the camel, usually do not so condemn it.
Doughty, for example, speaks more kindly of the camel than Pal­
grave, and, while fully alive to its shortcomings, reflects Arab
sentiment in the phrase, ‘Yet is the camel more beautiful in our
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