THE CAMEL. 1 93 



female serves as an article of food, the surplus wool of his 

 body as a material for rough woven cloth and his dung as 

 excellent fuel. He is said by some to be docile and affectionate 

 and by others to be dull and stupid, though harbouring the 

 spirit of revenge. Probably like many other animals he will 

 be found to reciprocate the treatment he receives in kindness 

 as well as in cruelty. Some confusion exists in the popular 

 mind as to distinctions between the Camel and the Dromedary, 

 the number of the humps being said to differentiate the two. 

 With regard to this Mr. Palgrave in his " Travels in Central and 

 Eastern Arabia ", says : " The camel and the dromedary in 

 Arabia are the same identical genus and creature, excepting 

 that the dromedary is a high-bred camel, and the camel 

 a low-bred dromedary; exactly the distinction which exists 

 between a race-horse and a hack; both are horses, but the 

 one of blood and the other not. The dromedary is the race 

 horse of this species, thin, elegant, (or comparatively so) fine 

 haired, light of step, easy of pace, and much more enduring 

 of thirst than the woolly, thick-built, heavy-footed, ungainly 

 and jolting camel. But both and each of them have only 

 one hump, placed immediately behind their shoulders, where 

 it serves as a fixing point for the saddle or burden. For 

 the two humped beast it exists, indeed, but it is neither an 

 Arab dromedary nor camel; it belongs to the Persian breed 

 called by the Arabs 'Bakhtee' or Bactrian." 

 The strength Like all animals in their native lands the camel 

 Endurance s ^ ows remarkable adaptation to his environment. 

 of the Camel. Water is scarce in the desert, so the ship of the 

 desert, as he has been poetically called, is provided with a 

 capacity for the storage of the precious fluid and is able to 

 take in a several days' supply at one time. The camel is 

 said to drink " fifty, sixty, or even a hundred pounds' weight " 

 of water at one time, and then to go for three or four days 

 without a fresh supply. Again food is scarce in the desert, 

 and the herbage of a very coarse kind, but the camel is able 



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