THE CAMEL. 47 



parched, over which the eye extends without perceiving a single 

 animated being ; a dead earth, perpetually tossed by the winds, pre- 

 senting nothing but bones, scattered flints, rocks perpendicular, or 

 overthrown : a naked desert where the traveller never breathes un- 

 der a friendly shade, where nothing accompanies him, and where 

 nothing recals to mind the idea of animated nature; an absolute 

 solitude, infinitely more frightful than that of the deepest forest ; for 

 to man trees are, at least, visible objects : more solitary and naked, 

 more lost in an unbounded void, he every where beholds the extend- 

 ed space surrounding him as a tomb: the light of the day, more 

 dismal than the darkness of night, serves only to give him a clearer 

 idea of his own wretchedness and impotence, and to present before 

 his eyes the horror of his situation, by extending around him the 

 immense abyss which separates him from the habitable parts of the 

 earth : an abyss which he would in vain attempt to traverse, for 

 hunger, thirst, and burning heat haunt him every moment that re- 

 mains between despair and death. The Arab, nevertheless, by the 

 assistance of his camel, has learned to surmount, and even to appro- 

 priate these frightful intervals of nature to himself. They serve him 

 for an asylum, they secure his repose, and maintain his independ* 

 ence. The Arab is early accustomed to the fatigues of travelling, 

 to want of sleep ; and to endure hunger, thirst, and heat. With 

 this view he instructs, rears, and exercises his camels. A few days 

 after their birth, he folds their limbs to remain on the ground, and 

 in this situation he loads them with a pretty heavy weight, which 

 is never removed but for the purpose of replacing a greater. Instead 

 of allowing them to feed at pleasure, and to drink when they are 

 thirsty, he regulates their repasts, and makes them gradually travel 

 long journies, diminishing at the same time their quantity of food. 

 When they acquire some strength, he exercises them to the course ; 

 he excites their emulation by the example of horses, and in time 

 renders them equally swift and more robust. At length, when he 

 is assured of the strength, fleetness, and sobriety of his camels, he 

 loads them with whatever is necessary for his and their subsistence, 

 departs with them, arrives unexpectedly at the confines of the des- 

 ert, robs the first passenger he meets, pillages the straggling habita- 

 tions, loads his camels with the booty, and if pursued is obliged to 

 accelerate his retreat. It is on these occasions that he unfolds his 

 own talents and those of his camels ; he mounts one of the fleetest, 

 and conducting the troop, makes them travel night and day, almost 

 without stopping to eat or drink ; and in this manner he easily 

 passes over the space of three hundred leagues in eight days. Dur- 

 ing all that time of fatigue and travel he never unloads his camels, 

 and only allows them an hour of repose, and a ball of paste each 

 day. They often rim in this manner for eight or nine days, with- 

 out meeting with any water, and when by chance there is a pool at 

 some distance, they scent the water, even when half a league from 

 it. Thirst makes them redouble their pace, and they drink as much 

 at once as serves them for the time that is past, and for as much to 



