The satiated she-camels moved very slowly, stopping every little while. The herdsman mounted the leading camel, ka´ada, and rode at the head of his herd, urging it to greater speed with a short drawling song, jesaje`. The ditty sung to keep the returning herd together was called mesja. Every herdsman had a song of his own, which differed from others in the words as well as in the cadences and the length of the syllables. Were it not for this singing, the camels of the same herd would not keep together, but would have been lost among the thousands of animals returning  home after sunset. On arriving  at the  tent, the herdsman remained sitting on his she she-camel, which he halted and  kept  on  singing  the  mesja while he waited for  the whole herd  to come in. Then  he dismounted and fettered the animals by binding the left front leg above the knee. After eating his supper, he laid down among his herd, so as to watch it at night also. Next morning, before sunrise, he untied the cords of the camels, counted them and gave them back to his host. The milking of  the she-camels was  done  by the owner  and  his family , or a slave or a servant. After the milking they were driven a short distance from the tent, where they grazed till the dew had evaporated and the herdsman would take them out again.

The watering of the camels depended on several factors of the pasturing ground and plants and also on the season of the year. When grazing on the salt hamz plants  exclusively they had to be  given water after four or five days. If their food consisted of dry plants, tenn, they could endure from six to fifteen days. In the time of rabi, when they ate nothing but fresh, juicy grasses, they would not touch water for even as long as thirty days. In the hot season, al-kez, when the Bedouins  encamped in  the settled territories, the  herds were driven to the watering places every day (Musil). The watering was done either at the wells or at rain pools. Watering could cause the herdsmen much labor, as some wells were very deep or had to be cleaned from mud and sand or even dug anew. As the camels generally drop their excrements while drinking, the places of watering or the rain pools itself became soon defiled beyond measure. Musil records a wealth of little songs that were sung when watering the camels.

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Many camels got lost. Musil tells us, that those did not find their way back, as they were only accustomed to follow the leading she-camel. Often the lost camel joined another herd, followed it back to the camp, moaned when it did not hear the familiar voice of the herdsman and moved towards him as soon as his ditty caught its ear. Lost camels were hunted by the owner and his friends on horseback the same evening. If it was not found, they returned the next day before noon and saddled their camels to search again. A stray or lost camel was called daheba, the man who lost her, medheb. Young camels were constantly in danger from many beasts of prey, mainly wolves.
 
The camel was ridden by the Bedouins on lengthy marches. Indeed such marches were always made on camels, never on horses.