96 THE CAMEL. 



fact, nevertheless, that such a training was pur- 

 sued elsewhere than in the countries visited by 

 Tavernier, appears from the account given by 

 Brue, a Frenchman, who travelled in Senegal 

 towards the close of the seventeenth century, 

 and who describes the process in much the same 

 words. At present, however, it is believed that 

 the only education generally bestowed upon the 

 ordinary animal is simply to habituate him 

 gradually to the halter and the pack-saddle, and 

 to teach him to lie down and rise at the word 

 of command. Nature and the imitation of his 

 fellows do the rest. I quote at length, from 

 Daumas,^ his description of the training of the 

 mahari of the Sahara. 



" As soon as the foal is dropped, he is swaddled 

 with abroad band to compress his intestines and 

 prevent the belly from acquiring too great a 

 volume. The bandages are removed in eight 

 days. The young mahari is an inmate of the 

 tent, a playfellow of the children, and habit 

 and gratitude attach him to the family, whom 

 he feels to be his friends. In the spring he is 

 sheared, and for a year he sucks when he pleases, 

 and follows his dam at will. He is not yet 

 troubled with lessons, and is as free as if in a 

 wild state. When the time for weaning arrives, 

 one of his nostrils is pierced with a sharp stick, 



1 McEurs et Coutumes de VAlgerie. 



