HOW THE BEDOUINS CONQUER THIRST.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1122, 25 February 1885, Page 4

HOW THE BEDOUINS CONQUER THIRST.

In an artiole on "The Rescue of Chineae Q-ordon," in the "Century," General E. E. Colston, late of tbe Egyptian general staff, says: — "In the ' waterless land,' water is the paramount question. If it be asked how a large body of Bedouins like the 10,000 who nearly destroyed the British squares at Tamai, manage to Bubsist, the reason is plain. In the first place, they do not need the enormous trains required for a European army. They are the most abstemious of men . Each man carries a skin of water and a small bag of grain, procured by purchase or barter from caravans. Their camels and goats move with them, supplying them with milk and meat, and subsisting upon tbe scanty herbage aad the foliage of tbe thorny mimosa, growing in secluded wadies. These peoplr could live upon the increase of theie flocks alone, which, they exchange readily for other commodities ; bufc being the exclusive carriers and guides for all the travel and commerce that cross their deserts, they realise yearly large amounts of money. As to water, j they know every nook and hollow in the mountains, away from the trails, where a few barrels of water collect in some shaded ravine, and they can scatter, every man for himself, to fill their water skins. On my first expedition, near the close of the three years' drought, I reached some wells on which I was depending, and found them entirely dry. It was several days to the next wells. But my Bedouin guides knew some natural reservoirs in tbe hills about six miles off. So they took the water camels at nightfall, and came back before daylight with the water skins filled. An invading army would find it hard to obtain guides, and even if they did, they must keep together, and could not leave the line of march to look for water. Besides, the Bedouins, accustomed from infancy to regard water as most precious and rare, use it with wonderful economy. Neither men nor anidals drink more than once in fortyeight hours. As to washing, they never indulge in such wasteful nonsense. When Bedouins came to my camp water was always offered them. Their answer would frequently be : 'No thanks ; I drank yesterday. 1 They know too well the importance of keeping up the habit of abstemiousness. No wonder they can subsist where invaders would quickly perish."