PURCHASE OF CAMELS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. 207 



(fifty-four to sixty miles) a day. I have been told that some can ac- 

 complish twenty-five farsengs, which would be more than ninety 

 miles, carrying, however, only a rider.* 



The dromedary is not timid, and is easily accustomed to the sound 

 of the drum and of cannon, They sometimes, however, take to start- 

 ing, and are then seized by a kind of panic, from which it is difficult 

 to recover them. On such occasions, if there are many in company; 

 they huddle together, but do not run away. 



The dromedary generally ambles. Their rapid gait is the trot. 

 As for the gallop, they take it with difficulty, and only for a short 

 time. All of their motions are rough and disagreeable ; in pacing 

 they have a rolling, pitching motion, which sometimes produces 

 nausea ; when trotting, their jerking step is apt to chafe, until famil- 

 iarized to it by custom. 



The dromedary is subject to several diseases of the skin and mus- 

 cles, which are all cured by rubbing with grease, tar, or petroleum ; 

 by the use of guili-ermeni, (a very astringent red earth,) (sandix ? H. 

 C. W.) or by searing with a red-hot iron, which is the sovereign 

 remedy. The Persians say, that to be proof against disease the drome- 

 dary should be covered with burns, and that it does not impair their 

 value. 



Government buys the dromedaries for its service at from 10 to 15 

 tomans, (|23 to $35.) There are some which cost more, but never to 

 exceed 25 tomanSy (about $56.) They are hired for 20 or 30 chdhis a 

 day, (from 22 to 33 cents ) Their ordinary load is about 120 mem- 

 tehrizi, (somewhat more than 720 pounds.) I have seen some carry- 

 ing the top of a large tent which weighed more than 1,000 pounds. 

 An Asiatic proverb says : " When you want to travel, take a drome- 

 dary, for he will cross forty mountains without showing fatigue." — 

 (Tartar songs by M. Ghodzho.) 



True child of the desert, the dromedary, in spite of its docility, can 

 never be trained to the same regularity of movement and alignment 

 as the horse. Its ungraceful figure, long neck, the slowness and 

 awkwardness of its movement in turning about, the apathy which pre- 

 vents it from sharing the excitement of the rider in presence of danger, 

 and, in fine, its rough, jolting gait, cause it to be despised by the 

 European military men who have not the same difiiculties to contend 

 with as the Asiatics and the Africans. 



THE DROMEDARY AS A MEANS OF MILITARY TRANSPORTATION. 



Each tribe in every part of Persia, from the extreme northern to 

 the southern frontier of that vast kingdom, possesses a number of 

 dromedaries, which constitutes the larger part of its possessions. 

 From the earliest ages they have been used as a means of transport- 



* Hussein-Khan, who came to France in 1836 as ambassador, and who had been nominated 

 governor of Yezd, presented to the grand vizier a hundred dromedaries from his province, 

 which were so swift that horses that followed them at a gallop remained so far behind, after 

 an hour's running, as to be unable to overtake them, Tliis trial was made before the whole 

 court and m presence of the king. 



