On Buying Camels “SHIPS OF THE DESERT”

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 69, 15 December 1931, Page 14 (Supplement)

On Buying Camels “SHIPS OF THE DESERT”

By

Will White

In the Sudan campaign Kitchener purchased thousands of camels for transport purposes. Not a yard would he advance from Sarras, near the actual outpost of civilisation, until he had secured every available camel. The job of buying these thousands of beasts must have been a long and trying task. Many years later, during the World War, a certain number of camels were used in Mesopotamia, though the majority of the transport animals in that campaign were mules. But it is the actual buying of camels with which this article is concerned. Apart from ordinary commercial instincts, the buyer must, if he does not wish to be cheated wholesale, possess the shrewd, keen qualities of the most alert business man, for the average camel owner is a veritable Shylock, who will have his “pound of flesh” and to spare, by hook or crook. The following gives a fairly accurate account of the sale and purchase of a camel during war time, when everyone seems anxious to secure a share of the streams of gold poured from Government coffers at such a time. The Arab, or Kurd, or Persian,- or whatever particular brand of native owns the camel, leads up his funnylooking beast for your inspection. You glance disparagingly at the animal, as if you are not in the least impressed by its qualities, whatever they may be You then ask the price The owner says £l4. At this point ydur real acting begins. You give a shout of Incredulity, as If the mere mention of such an extortionate sum has flabbergasted you. You sweep your arms across, as if to wave the native and his camel out of your sight. Then, turning abruptly oa your heel, you walk quickly and indignantly away. How far you go depends on the price asked. If It is really very high, you may keep on walking, like the oncefampus cat. Usually, however, a couple of hundred yards is sutfleient, and you steer a devious course, so as to return to the native and his camel. You stop .

before them, and glance at them in blank surprise, as though you had foe* gotten their existence. The native asks how much you will pay. You reply £7. Then It is the native’s turn to utter a shriek of derision, whirl round, and set off across the desert, followed by his absurd creature at the end of a rope. Soon, however, back he comes to say he will accept £l2. At this, off yon go again with a cry of indignant pro test against such robbery. And thus the bargaining goes on, the distance gradually shortening, and each of you becoming more mollified as the time goes on. Eventually you get the camel for the price you first stipulated! The buyer need have no compunction about the methods he employs, for it ia an established fact that every sellar of camels in the deserts of the East asks at least twice as much as the beasts are really worth. If you offer half the owner’s price, you are offering a fair price, which the Arab secretly knows to be the case. In conclusion, a word about the peculiarities of these strange “ships at the desert,” as camels are often called. They are not nearly so amiable and docile as their mild and inoffensive appearance suggests. Inwardly the camel is a real villain! It will, for instance, approach you in a mildlyinterested and domestic manner, much as a dog or a cat might do, and you await its advances with complete confidence—if you are a novice! Then it puts its Ups gently forward,* and you are convinced the animal is about to bestow an affectionate kiss on you, when two rows of horrible green teeth clash in front of you, and you have just time to spring back out of reach of the treacherous beast When once he drops the mask, as it were, nothing more repulsive and abominable than the face of a camel can be imagined. No kindness will affect the disposition of the creature. Yet some allowance must be made for an animal that can carry a load of 6061 b. for 20 miles a day, and ask for no water and very Uttle food at the end of it.