CHAPTER II. 



ADAPTATION OF THE CAMEL TO CERTAIN LOCAL CON- 

 DITIONS LITERATURE OF THE SUBJECT. 



AMONG the animated organisms of this latter 

 class, the camel is, doubtless, the most important 

 and remarkable. The Ship of the Desert 1 has 



1 Wilkinson, in his Handbook for Travellers in Egypt, 

 denies that the Orientals bestow this figurative appellation 

 upon the camel, and affirms that its European use is founded 

 on a misapprehension of the meaning of an Arabic term 

 (mrkb) often applied to the camel, and simply signifying 

 vehicle, and not properly ship, as it has been translated. But 

 Sir William Jones uses the phrase in his translations of Arabic 

 poems, and Langles, in his Notes to Chardin, gives the cor- 

 responding Arabic words in a form, which admits of none 

 but the old and well-established acceptation. Besides these 

 authorities, we may cite Daumas, Mceurs et Coutumes de 

 FAlgerie, 358, where another term of the same signification 

 is given, and a poem in praise of the Desert by the celebrated 

 Emir, Abd-el-Kader, translated in Daumas, Les Chevaux 

 du Sahara, 401, in which camels are styled 



Vaisseaux legers de la terre, 

 Plus surs que les vaisseaux, 

 Car le navire est inconstant. 



Hitter indeed, Erdkunde, xm. 744, adopts Wilkinson's cor- 

 rection of this supposed error, and remarks, that the Arab, 



