And for that cause men pass that desert with camel. For the camel find alway meat in trees and on bushes, that he feedeth him with.
-The Travels of John Mandeville
The fruit of a desert gum tree is truly a poor man’s meal, a tiny legume in a tiny pod, much smaller than the carob pods and seeds that fed John the Baptist, and it seems near impossible that browsing them our camels could find nourishment of any kind, Bread or Meat, Leaf or Thorn.