130 THE CAMEL. 



contended for the victory, and as I have before 

 remarked, their noses were slit the day before, by 

 way of preparation. The course was not above 

 two or three hundred yards, and so much time 

 was lost in starting and turning, that though they 

 went at a prodigious rate over the centre of the 

 course, it was difficult to form any estimate of 

 their speed as compared with that of the horse. 

 The race presented a very animated picture, and 

 the shrill shouts of the ambitious riders, the ap- 

 parent rivalry of the animals, and the peculiar 

 ululatus of the women, which the Arabs pretend 

 is produced by a rapid lateral vibration of the 

 tongue, gave the whole scene a very wild and 

 exciting character. 



From the great length of step, the motion of 

 the burden camel and the slow walk of the 

 dromedary are necessarily violent, and at first 

 very wearisome to the rider; but a few days 

 practice accustoms him to this rough exercise, 

 and he performs his day's journey with as lit- 

 tle exhaustion as upon horseback. " Although 

 mounted on an animal capable of much fleeter 

 motion," says a writer in the American Whig 

 Review, whom we have before quoted, "the 

 traveller is, in general, obliged to conform to the 

 snail's pace of the caravan, because he cannot 

 with convenience, or indeed at all times with 

 safety, be separated from his baggage and at- 



