PURCHASE OF CAMELS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. 53 



THE ARABIAN CAMEL. 



This is the species with which we have particularly to deal. It is 

 found throughout "camel land," and furnishing varieties for both 

 burden and for riding ; is one of the most useful, if not the most useful, 

 of the domestic animals of the east. Its powers and hardiness vary 

 with climate and breeding, and, as a general rule, its strength and 

 endurance is greater the further north that it is found. With the 

 many unmixed varieties of this species may be classed the cross of the 

 Bactrian male upon the Arabian female, before mentioned, and which 

 always follows the mother in the number of its humps. This hybrid, 

 known in Persia as the hooghdee, and in Turkey in Asia the male as 

 the tinlu and the female as the maya, is, like the mule, incapacitated 

 from continuing its race, or should it produce, its offspring is but 

 feeble and worthless; but combining the power of .the Bactrian with 

 the quicker movement of the Arabian, it is peculiarly valuable as an 

 animal of burden. 



The names of the different varieties and of the sexes of the Arabian 

 camel vary with the dialects of the several countries and provinces 

 in which is is found. Those given by the Kev. Mr. Bliss (see No. 4) 

 are generally used in and will be recognized throughout Asia Minor. 



Meek and docile as the camel is usually represented to be^ it will 

 hardly be supposed that numbers are trained for the arena. Yet so 

 it is ; and one of the amusements of oriental life is contests between 

 pelilavans* or "fighting camels," in which one or the other is gen- 

 erally severely hurt, and not unfrequently killed by a dislocation of 

 the cervical vertebrae. 



NATURE AND DISEASES OF THE CAMEL. 



The camel belongs to the class of ruminants, and in its general 

 character and diseases resembles more the ox than any other division 

 of animals. Its four stomachs, as a ruminant, are distinctly recog- 

 nized, but much doubt (see No. 6) is expressed as to its possession of 

 a fifth, attributed to it by by some writers to account for its ability 

 to carry within itself a supply of water to meet the exigencies of 

 desert life. Naturally hardy, the camel will undergo much exposure 

 and fatigue without serious inconvenience ; and beyond the ordinary 

 ailments of the ox tribe, it has but two diseases of consequence ; the 

 " mange, or itch," (see No. 5,) and a violent pneumonitis, or inflam- 

 mation of the lungs, which is apt to carry it off in two or three days. 

 The first proceeds too often from neglect and dirt ; the last from 

 exposure to extreme cold or chilly dampness when heated. 



The remedies in the east for the diseases of camels are charms and 

 other superstitious appliances, a free use of tar distilled from a 

 particular resinous shrub, and the more active one of the actual 

 cautery. For strains and internal injuries the actual cautery is 

 ordinarily used ; for bruises and sores, an application of tar. Blue 



* Pehlavan m.ea,ns "prize-fighter," "wrestler." 



