XOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 117 



and the caravans or strings of camels are, Mr. Macfarlane 

 tells us, alwa^^s headed by a little ass, on which the driver 

 sometimes rides, and which has a tinkling bell round its 

 neck. Each camel, he adds, is commonly furnished with 

 a large, rude, but soft and pastoral-sounding bell, sus- 

 pended to the front of the pack or saddle. If these bells 

 be removed by accident or design, the camels, like the 

 mules of Spain and Italy, will come to a dead stop ; and 

 Mr. Macfarlane adds, that, like the mules also, the camels 

 always go best in a long line, one after the other. He 

 tried the experiment of the bell at Pergamos. Two 

 stately camels, the foremost furnished with the bell, were 

 trudging along the road with measured steps. The bell 

 was detached with a long stick. The camels halted, nor 

 could they be urged forward till their ears were regaled 

 with the well-known music. Mr. Macfarlane observes, 

 that he uses the word ' measured,' not as a matter of 

 poetry, but of fact ; and he states that their step is so 

 measured and like clock-work, that on a plain you know 

 almost to a yard the distance they will go in a given 

 time. In the flat valleys of the Hermus and Caicus he 

 made calculations with a watch in his hand, and found, 

 hour after hour, an unvarying result, the end of their 

 journey being performed just at the same pace, three 

 miles an hour, as the beginning. The camel is, indeed , 

 the creature of order and regularity. Each has his place 

 in the line ; and if this be interfered with, the beasts be- 

 come disorderly and will not march. ' Each gets attached 

 to a particular camel of the caravan, prefers seeing his 

 tail before him to that of any other, and will not go if 

 you displace his friend.' 



But the Egyptians do not move in single file ; they, on 

 the contrary, march with a wide-extended front. Cara- 

 vans from Bagdad to Aleppo and Damascus have been 

 said to consist of camels marching abreast of each other, 

 and sometimes extending over a S23ace of more than a 

 mile. 



