be met in a few minutes, and the natives, in endeavouring to impart a correct idea of the fleetness of these animals to the traveller, have a saying: “If you meet a good dromedary, and the rider salute you with _‘Es-selam’ aley’koom,’_[62] both man and beast are out of sight before you can answer _‘aley’koom es-selám.”_ It requires, indeed, some practice to be able to bear the exertion of riding these animals. Letters from the southern provinces, are usually forwarded to Cairo by couriers mounted on dromedaries, who generally require twenty-eight days to perform a distance of about seventeen degrees of latitude. For the accomplishment of this task, a relay of three or four couriers is necessary. On important missions, however, one and the same courier frequently performs the whole distance, merely changing his dromedaries at the various stations. The rider is always very lightly accoutred, and carries, besides his arms, consisting of a sabre, a pair of pistols, and frequently also of a long gun, two bags of moderate size for his provender, and a small water-bag attached to his saddle-bow, and thus he sets out upon his journey, which would prove a most arduous undertaking to any other person, with the least possible incumbrance, and with no uneasiness. The flesh of the young camels, of the two or four years old, is highly prized by the natives, more especially by the Nomadic tribes, and forms their chief article of food. Many of them are slaughtered at Lobeid, and the meat is sold at the same price as beef, which some of the residents prefer. The milk is also a chief article of consumption with many of the natives.