When we had been several days continuously tracking we came up with the beasts.

There were four of them altogether, and right wild and vicious-looking brutes they were.

They marched close together in a band, and never parted company.

The moment I and my men tried to separate and head them off, the leader would swoop down upon us with open mouth, and the result of this appalling apparition was that my black assistants fled precipitately.

Alone I followed the camels for several days in the hope of being able ultimately to drive them into some ravine, where I thought I might possibly bring them into a state of subjection by systematic starvation.