If It Happen That The Camel Dies By The Way, The Carrier Is
To Supply Us With Another; And Therefore,
Those carriers[FN#42] who
come from Egypt to Mecca with the Caravan, bring with them several
spare camels; for
There is hardly a night passeth but many die upon the
road, for if a camel should chance to fall, it is seldom known that it
is able to rise again; and if it should, they despair of its being
capable of performing the journey, or ever being useful more. It is a
common thing, therefore, when a camel once falls, to take off its
burden and put it on another, and then kill it; which the poorer sort
of the company eat. I myself have eaten of camel’s flesh, and it is very
sweet and nourishing. If a camel tires, they even leave him upon the
place.
“The first day we set out from Mecca, it was without any order at all,
all hurly burly; but the next day every one laboured to get forward;
and in order to it, there was many time much quarrelling and fighting.
But after every one had taken his place in the Caravan, they orderly
and peaceably kept the same place till they came to Grand Cairo. They
travel four camels in a breast,
[p.382] which are all tied one after the other, like as in
teams.[FN#43] The whole body is called a Caravan, which is divided into
several cottors, or companies, each of which hath its name, and
consists, it may be, of several thousand camels; and they move one
cottor after another, like distinct troops.
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