;n 



CAM! 



CAMKI.rs. 



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are the points whereon the animal rests when it kneels down to receive 

 iu burden. The hump, which is a fatty secretion, is known to be 

 absorbed into the system when the animal U pinched for food, thui 

 forming a provmon against the casualties of a life ordained to be 

 pent in the desert 



The Camel furnishes the Arab with flesh and milk ; of iu hair he 

 weave* clothing and even tents ; his belt and his sandals are the 

 produce of iU hide ; and the dung afford* him fuel. The soot of thU 

 fuel, after having undergone the process of sublimation in closed 

 vessels, produced' the sal-ammoniac, or hydrochlurate of ammonia, 

 which was formerly imported from Egypt into this country, where 

 the alkali U now however manufactured in a variety of ways. In the , 

 Kast the hair of the camel is made into cloth. The raiment of John j 

 the Baptist was of camel's hair. (Matthew, ill 4 ; Mark, i. 6.) It is ; 

 principally imported into these islands for the manufacture of pencils 

 for the painter. The hair which is the product of Persia is held in 

 the greatest estimation. There are three qualities black, red, and 

 gray ; the black brings the best price, the red comes next in value, 

 and the gray is only valued at half the price of the red. But these 

 uses are mere trifles when compared with the paramount importance 

 of these ymala as commercial vehicles, ' ships of the desert,' aa they 

 have been poetically termed; for they are the living machines by 

 means of which communication is kept up across the most desolate 

 and frightful deserts, which without some such aid would be entirely 

 impassable by man. These toilsome journies over the most dreary 

 and inhospitable regions, the organisation of the camel and its extreme 

 temperance enable it to perform with comparative ease. 

 The load of a heavy or slow-going camel in one of the caravans is, 

 according to Major Rennell, from 500 to 600 Ibs. weight The latter is 

 the amount given by Sandys as the ordinary load ; " yet," he adds, 

 " will he carry a 1 000 Ibs. weight." At Pisa the burden of a full-grown 

 camel is stated to be sometimes 14 kilogrammes (above 800 Ibs.). The 

 mode of training the beast to bear these loads seems to vary. Brue, 

 speaking of an African mode (Senegal) towards the end of the 17th 

 century, says : " Soon after a camel is born the Moors tie his feet 

 under his belly, and having thrown a large cloth over his back, put 

 heavy stones at each corner of the cloth, which rests on the ground. 

 They in this manner accustom him to receive the heaviest loads." 

 Santi describes the method adopted at Pisa. At the age of four years 

 a camel which is intended for labour is broken iu. The trainers first 

 double up one of his four legs, which they tie fast with a cord ; they 

 then pull the cord, and thus usually compel the animal to fall upoii 

 his bent knee. If this does not succeed they tie up both logs, and he 

 falls upon both knees, and upon the callosity which is upon his breast. 

 They often accompany this operation with a particular cry and with 

 a slight blow of a whip. At this cry and blow, with the addition of 

 a sudden jerk downwards of his halter, the camel gradually learns to 

 lie down upon his belly, with his legs doubled under him, at the 

 command of hi.s driver. The trainers then accustom him to a pock- 

 xaddle, and place on it a load at first light, but increased by degree* 

 as the animal advances in docility, till at last, when he readily lies 

 down at the voice of his driver and as readily rises up with his load, 

 his education is so far complete. The camels at Pisa, it appears, do 

 not complain if too heavily laden ; but in Egypt, according to Denon, 

 they remonstrated loudly on such occasions, crying out when they 

 were laden too heavily or unequally. 



In travelling with a caravan the acute sense of smelling possessed 

 by the Camel is strikingly displayed. When apparently completely 

 worn out, and when all have been on the point of perishing with thirst, 

 he has been known to break his halter and run with unerring cer- 

 tainty to a spring which had escaped the observation of the other 

 quadrupeds of the caravan, and of man hiinsalf. 



Arabia, Persia, the south of Tartary, some part* of India, and 

 Africa, from Egypt to Mauritania, and from the Mediterranean to the 

 river Senegal, appear to be the countries over which the Arabian 

 Camel is principally distributed. It is also numerous in the Canary 

 Islands. That it was a native uf Asia from the earliest times, and the 

 great oriental commercial vehicle of ancient as it is of modern days, 

 cannot be doubted. We trace it repeatedly in the Scriptures. Thus 

 when Joseph's brethren had cast him into the pit, and after the com- 

 mission of their crime had sat down to eat bread, " they lifted up 

 tlu-ir eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmoelites came 

 from Uilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, 

 going to carry it down to Egypt" (Genesis xxxvii. 25.) Again, in 

 Judges, viii. 21, we read that " Oideou arose and slew Zebah and 

 Zalmunnah, and took away the ornaments that were on their camels' 

 necks." In Genesis xxxii. 7, we find that Jacob " divided the people 

 that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into 

 two bands;" and the domestic state of the animal at this early period 

 is further proved by .verse 15 of the same chapter, where we see, as 

 part of the present sent by Jacob to propitiate Esau, " thirty milch 

 camels with their colts." In Leviticus, xi. 4, the camel is enumerated 

 among the forbidden animals, "because be cheweth the end. t.ut 

 divideth not the hoof : he is unclean unto you." Part of Job's " sub- 

 stance (Job i. 8.) consisted of three thousand camels ;" and the third 

 messenger of evil informs him (i. 17) that "the Chaldrcaus made out 

 three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away." 

 When, after his afflictions, the Lord blessed the latter end of Job 



more than his beginning (xlii. 12) "six thousand camels" formed a 

 portion of the blessing. And here we may observe that though the 

 inquiry has been the subject of much research, there is no satisfactory 

 evidence of the existence of the Camel iu an originally wild state at 

 any period whatever. Diodorous and Strabo indued mention its 

 existence in such a state in Arabia ; and Desmoulins, who has written 

 most valuably on the subject, asserts that it so existed in the time of 

 Hadrian ; the natives too of Central Africa maintain, it is said, that 

 the animal is to be found wild in the mountains where Europeans 

 have never penetrated. But it is far from improbable tli.it these wild 

 camels might, like the wild horses of the American prairies, have 

 owed their parentage to camels which had escaped from the control 

 of man. Cuvier, in relating the report of Pallas upon the evidence of 

 the Buchanans and Tartars that there are wild camels in the deserts 

 of the middle of Asia, well remarks that it must not be forgotten that 

 the Calmucks give liberty to all sorts of anima)!) from a religious 

 principle. 



In Europe, Pisa seems to be the only locality where the Camel U 

 now bred. At San Rossora, the arid plains and stunted bushes bear 

 some distant resemblance to the Asiatic and African deeert ; but most 

 authors who understand the subject agree in considering that the race 

 is fast degenerating. The time of their introduction into Tuscany is 

 not accurately known. 



The Arabian Camel was introduced into Spain by the Moors ; and 

 the southern districts possessed many of these animals for a consider- 

 able period after the conquest of Granada ; but they are now no longer 

 to be found as a species in the Spanish territory. After the conquest 

 of Spanish America an attempt was made to introduce them into that 

 country by Juan de Reinega, a Biscay an ; and Acosta saw them towards 

 the end of the 16th century at the foot of the Andes. But the intro- 

 duction of these animals was looked upon with no favourable eye l>y 

 the ruling Spaniards, and they gradually dwindled away. They have 

 however been lately imported with greater success from the Canary 

 Islands. Uumboldt mentions them, and particularly some that he 

 saw feeding under a palm-tree near New Valencia. 



Camelm Bactrianut (Linn.), the Mecheri, or Camel. It is the ' ' /' 

 tophtu of Walther, C. Turcicta of Alpinus, the Boctriau Camel of IVn- 

 nant, Le Chameau of Button, the Trompelthier of Knorr. It has two 

 humps on the back. Length about 10 feet Hair shaggy, particularly 

 under the throat Colour generally dark-brown. Localities, Persia, 

 Turkey, Ac. 



Itaclriun Camel (Camrlut Jlnctrianiu). 



This species is comparatively rare ; but iu the middle zone of Asia, 

 north of the Taurus and the Himalaya Mountains, it is found in com- 

 parative abundance. Not that it is not to be seen occasionally in other 

 countries iu Arabia, for instance ; but such instances are said to bo 

 uncommon. The Boctriun Camel is stouter and more muscular than 

 the Arabian species, and his strength is in proportion. "It 

 from brown to white, and also greatly in size, strength, ami ijui. 

 according to the breed and climate." (Gray.) 



C. Promedariut (Linn.), the Sghimel, or Dromedary. It if the 

 C. L\ik of Eversmann, V. rulyaru of Forskal, C. monetf/<// .<(' Walthrr, 

 C. Dromu of Gesnrr, C'. miiiiaiut of Klein, C. ret at of Fi-isch, the 

 Arabian Camel of Pennant, and Le Dromedaire of Hull >n. 



It has one hump, situated on the middle of the bock. Length about 

 8 feet Hair pale brown, localities, Arabia, Africa, &c. 



Purchas (book vi., c. 1, s. 9) says that of Camels there are three 

 kinds ; the first called Huguiu, of tall stature and able to carry a 

 thousand pounds weight : the second less, having a double bunch, 

 fit for carriage and to ride on, called Becheti, bred only iu Asia ; the 

 third sort, called Kaguahill, small, able to travel (for they are until 

 for burdens) above an hundred miles in a day. The king of Tin.- 

 buotoo can send messengers on such < am. I- to Segelmesse or Darha, 

 900 miles distant, in the space of eight days at the farthest. He further 

 states that such enduring swiftness would !>< almost iucrviliule, \\ere 

 it not corroborated by the best authorities, who all agree iu their 



