TEMPER. 71 



The camel, though less vicious than the horse, 

 is not altogether so patient an animal as he is 

 generally represented. His anger is indeed not 

 easily excited, but when once thoroughly irri- 

 tated, he long remembers the injury which has 

 provoked him ; and the " camel's temper " is a 

 proverbial expression used by the Arabs to denote 

 a vindictive and unforgiving disposition. 1 Al- 

 though he sometimes strikes with the fore foot, 

 yet the hoof being unarmed, his blows are feeble, 

 and his only dangerous weapon is his teeth. 

 These are used with powerful effect in the bar- 

 barous fights which are sometimes got up as 

 spectacles, 2 but it is only under certain special 

 circumstances, which are easily avoided, that he 

 attacks his driver. 



His only ordinary manifestation of discontent, 

 is the harsh and ill-natured growl he sets up 

 whenever he is approached to be loaded or 

 mounted, and especially when any attempt is 

 made to overcharge him. In the stillness of the 

 desert, the growl of a caravan, preparing for the 

 morning's march, is heard for miles around ; 

 though the true mahari seldom growls, and it is 



1 Host, an accurate observer, says, (Efterretninger om 

 Marokos, 269,) that the Sultan of Morocco had camels trained 

 to act as executioners. 



2 Macfarlane describes one of these cruel exhibitions, at 

 Smyrna, as a very savage and repulsive scene. 



