THE CAMEL. 63 



ling in these caravans, is about twelve or fifteen miles per day, 

 each camel carrying about four hundred weight, although the 

 large and strong ones can carry above twice as much. They are 

 unloaded every night, and suffered to feed at liberty. If they are 

 in a part of the country where there is pasture, they eat enough 

 in one hour to serve them twenty-four ; but in those journies they 

 seldom find any pasturage, and happily, delicate food is not ne- 

 cessary to them. Thistles, nettles, furze, and all those coarser 

 vegetables, which other animals reject, furnish to the camel a 

 dainty repast. 



Although the ordinary rate of travelling on those commercial 

 journies, in which the route is frequently of seven or eight hun- 

 dred miles, be no quicker than it is here described, their preda- 

 tory expeditions are differently conducted. The camel, as well 

 as his master, is trained to these scenes of desultory warfare, 

 and by every art inured to hunger, thirst, and fatigue. The plun- 

 dering Arab will, in one day, if pursued, pass over a tract of 

 desert of fifty miles. In this manner he will travel in those dreary 

 solitudes ; and during all that time of excessive fatigue, the camels 

 are never unloaded; only a single hour of repose, and a ball of 

 paste, for food, is allowed them each day. In this manner they 

 often journey eight or nine days without meeting with any water, 

 and during all this long space of time they can travel without 

 drinking, while they carry water mostly in leather bags for the 

 use of their masters. It is hence evident, that all the armies 

 in the world would be inadequate to the pursuit of a troop of 

 Arabs, and would infallibly perish, should they persist in such an 

 attempt. 



It is somewhat extraordinary, that the camels, when they ar- 

 rive in the vicinity of a spring, or pool of water, discover it by 

 it^ .smell at the distance of more than a mile. Thirst then ex- 

 cites them to redouble their pace, and when arrived, they drink 

 as much as serves them during the rest of their journey, even 

 should it continue some weeks, which is not unfrequently the 

 case. 



Of all the quadrupeds, with which the earth is replenished, 

 the camel is the most tame and submissive : he kneels down to 

 be loaded and unloaded, and when overburdened, it makes the 

 most piteous complaints, without ever offering the least resist- 

 ance to his oppressor. If, however, his patience be extraordi- 

 nary, it is much to be feared, that, under the hand of relentless 

 man, his sufferings are sometimes extreme. 



Camels have a considerable share of intelligence ; and the 

 Arabs assert, that they are so extremely sensible of injustice and 

 ill-treatment, that when this is carried too far, the inflicter will 

 riot find it easy to escape their vengeance, and that they will re- 



