102 BULLETIN 119, V. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Model of Dromedary with Burden. (Scale 1:6.) Made in the Museum. 



The camel has been used from the earliest Biblical times as a beast 

 of burden; the dromedary, with a single hump, in Western Asia, 

 Egypt, and Northern Africa; the bactrian, with two humps and 

 long, thick hair, in the cold districts of Asiatic Russia. Camels 

 are also used for traction in many farming communities of the East 

 and by them merchandise is transported in many eastern countries. 

 The camel is called " the ship of the desert." 



Cat. No. 181,274 U.S.N.M. 



Sedan Chair. Gift of Turkish Centennial Commission, 1876. 



The Sedan chair, which receives its name from Sedan, France, 

 where it was first made, was a very popular and widely used mode 

 of transportation during the eighteenth century. They were both 

 privately owned and hired, as is the modern taxicab. 



The chair consists of an inclosed seat provided with a glazed door 

 at the front and a window at each side. It was carried by two men 

 by means of horizontal poles which slipped through metal sockets at 

 each side. The outside frame of the chair is covered with leather 

 decorated with paint while the inside is upholstered in brocaded cloth. 

 The inside dimensions of the chair are 26 inches wide, 30 inches deep, 

 and 4 feet 6 inches high. Cat. No. 181,182 U.S.N.M. 



Sedan Chair. Gift of the First Japanese Trading Company, 1888. 



This chair formerly belonged to Tokugawa lyehito, the eleventh 

 Taikun of Japan, who presented it to his daughter as a wedding gift 

 when she was betrothed to Prince Hosokawa, a Duke of Higo. 



The chair resembles a miniature one-room house whose four cor- 

 ners, however, are not vertical but inclined so that its ceiling area is 

 less than that of the floor. It is covered by a double roof, the lower 

 being a low arch, while the upper is a ridge roof of high pitch. 



There are two sliding doors, one on each side of the chair, which 

 are screened but permit perfect visibility of the occupant. There is 

 also a screened opening in the front of the chair. 



It is constructed of ebony, heavily inlaid and trimmed with gold. 

 The interior is upholstered and decorated throughout in colors. It 

 is carried by a pole supported on the shoulders of two men, the pole 

 passing between the two roofs and extending 5 feet beyond the front 

 and rear. The inside dimensions are 30 inches wide, 4 feet deep, and 

 30 inches high. Cat. No. 180,070 U.S.N.M. 



