THE HUMP. 



39 



ing legs terminating in apparently dispropor- 

 tio'lied feet, are not materials for producing 

 elegance of form; and indeed the air of the 

 animal is altogether grotesque; but this uncouth 

 shape is one of those admirable examples of 

 contrivance, which must strike the most careless 



observer." 



The hump is simply a fleshy or rather tatty 

 protuberance upon the back, like that of the 

 bison, unsupported by any special bony process, 

 and it is least developed in the highest bred ani- 

 mals, so that the mahari of the Sahara is popu- 

 larly described as being without that appendage. 

 The fulness of the protuberance, however, de- 

 pends much upon the condition of the animal. 

 The state of the hump is a test constantly re- 

 ferred to in the sale or hire of the camel, and 

 the jockeys resort to various contrivances to give 

 it an unnatural plumpness and solidity.^ When 

 the camel has been, for a length of time, full 

 fed, and subjected to moderate labor only, the 

 hump assumes a greater plumpness of form and 

 hardness of texture ; but if ill kept or overworked, 

 the fat of the hump is absorbed, the protuber- 

 ance becomes flaccid, and it is sometimes even 

 reduced to little more than its skin. It undoubt- 



1 The camel-dealers perforate the skin, and blow up the 

 hump of the living animal, as dishonest butchers do their 

 meat, to make it look full. Tavernier, i. 132. 



