THE SKIN. 79 



nounced over him. Under such circumstances, 

 his flesh cannot be otherwise than hard and 

 unpalatable. But where the animal is in good 

 case, the flesh appears to be not inferior to that 

 of other domestic quadrupeds. Daumas says, 

 "all the flesh is good, and the hump is the 

 choicest dish a host can offer to guests of dis- 

 tinction." A correspondent in Bessarabia com- 

 pares it to good beef ; and Carbuccia says it is 

 scarcely distinguishable from the flesh of the ox. 1 

 The skin is applied to a great variety of uses. 

 " It makes water-skins," says Daumas, " which 

 retain the water in spite of wind and sun, or 

 boots which protect the foot of the traveller 

 against the bite of the viper, and the scorching 

 of the heated sands. Stripped of its hair, 

 soaked, and applied to the frame of a saddle, it 

 fits itself to the shape of the wood, and when 

 dry clings to it like the bark to a tree, without 

 nails or pins." This solidity and density of tex- 

 ture is a point of no small importance in its use 



1 " I have already spoken of the milk, but though I con- 

 fess to a reasonable degree of enlightened curiosity on the 

 subject of novel aliments, yet I have never carried that 

 laudable passion so far as to partake of barbecued drome- 

 dary, or bifteck de chameau. I must, therefore, refer my 

 gastronomic readers to the testimony of more diligent and 

 pains-taking inquirers, which, however, is not always very 

 favorable to the savoriness of those outlandish viands." Jour- 

 nal, referred to in Preface. 



