64 THE CAMEL. 



tain the remembrance of an injury till an opportunity offers for 

 gratifying their revenge. Eager, however, to express their re- 

 sentment, they no longer retain any rancour, when once they 

 are satisfied ; and it is even sufficient for them to believe they 

 have satisfied their vengeance. When an Arab, therefore, has 

 excited the rage of a camel, he throws down his garments in 

 some place near which the animal is to pass, and disposes them 

 in such a manner that they appear to cover a man sleeping un- 

 der them. The animal recognizes the clothes, seizes them in his 

 teeth, shakes them with violence, and tramples on them in a rage. 

 When his anger is appeased, he leaves them, and then the owner 

 of the garments may make his appearance without any fear, load, 

 and guide him as he pleases. " I have sometimes seen them," 

 says M. Sonnini, " weary of the impatience of their riders, stop 

 short, turn round their long necks to bite them, and utter cries 

 of rage. In these circumstances, the man must be careful not 

 to alight, as he would infallibly be torn to pieces : he must also 

 refrain from striking his beast, as that would but increase his 

 fury. Nothing can be done, but to have patience, and appease 

 the animal by patting him with the hand, (which frequently re- 

 quires some time,) when he will resume his way and his pace of 

 himself." Like the elephant, camels have their periodical fits 

 of rage, and during these they sometimes have been known to 

 take up a man in their teeth, throw him on the ground, and 

 trample him under their feet. 



If we view, with a philosophic eye, the singular conformation 

 of the camel, scepticism itself can scarcely call in question the 

 evident marks which it bears of a regular design, in an organi- 

 zation so wonderfully adapted to the purposes for which it is des- 

 tined, and to the place which it is appointed to hold in the sys- 

 tem of animated nature. Its feet are peculiarly adapted to the 

 soil on which he is to tread. They are liable to be injured by 

 travelling on stones, and he cannot well support kimself on moist 

 and slippery clays ; but his broad hoofs are perfectly calculated 

 ,for travelling on the dry and parched sands of Arabia. But the 

 peculiar and distinguished characteristic of the camel, is its 

 faculty of abstaining from water longer than any other animal 

 a property so necessary in those immense deserts. For this, Na- 

 ture has wonderfully provided, by a singular internal conforma- 

 tion ; for, besides the four stomachs, which he has in common 

 with other ruminating animals, he is also furnished with a fifth 

 bag, that serves as a reservoir for water, where it remains un- 

 corrupted, and without mixing with the other aliments. When 

 the camel is pressed with thirst, or has need of water to moisten 

 hib aliment, in chewing the cud, he draws up into the stomach, 

 or even into the throat, a part of this reserve. Furnished with 



