Yesterday morning blowy & overcast, then some fairly heavy showers of rain. Today no rain, but cooler still & windy.
The reason for the galls always present on camels’ joints is that these are what they kneel down on, usually on stones etc. Nearly all camels here also have galled backs. It is said that a camel can often only be managed by one man whom it knows, & that one must at all costs avoid beating them. Relative to size they carry a much smaller load than a donkey. Some of them have flies & maggots burrowing into the galls on their backs, without appearing to notice it. Children also pay very little attention to flies, which are sometimes crusted in sores all round their eyes.
Hollyhocks just over & sunflowers coming to an end. The former grow 10 or 12 feet high.
Chrysanthemums in the public gardens budding. Cannas are very fine, in 4 colours.
There is no snow at present on the Atlas mountains. At sunset when it is clear they take on a remarkable purplish-red colour.
The bow which is used for a lathe is also used for a drill. A drill with a cylindrical wooden handle in the base of which there is a hole is fitted against a steel point & rotated with a bow. It is kept firm by the other end being in contact with the wood that is drilled. It seems to work as exactly as an ordinary drill & very rapidly.
Bought two turtle doves this morning. Two doves 10 Fr. (an overcharge), bamboo cage about 20” by 15” by 20”, 15 Fr. Total cost about 3/-. These birds seem to domesticate very easily.
Ordinary blackbirds, or some bird extremely similar, is common here. Also the little owl or some very similar owl. Bats here are large, about twice the size of English bat.
It gets dark now at about 6.45 pm.
