CHAPTER XI. 



BURDEN AND FURNITURE. 



THE camel, with his slender and shrunken 

 limbs, his light quarters, and his shambling gait, 

 seems little adapted to the performance of any 

 labor requiring either speed or strength ; but his 

 powers of endurance enable him to accomplish 

 a long journey in a shorter space than even the 

 horse ; and he bears a burden greatly dispropor- 

 tioned to his own weight. The camel of the 

 great Arabian Peninsula, though remarkable 

 for his speed, is less powerful than the Bactrian, 

 the Turcoman, the Syrian, or the Egyptian ani- 

 mal. In Arabia Petraea. his load does not ordi- 

 narily exceed three or four hundred pounds. 

 Brown estimates the burdens of the camels of 

 Soudan at the same weight ; and Burckhardt 

 that of the Nubian camel at four or five hun- 

 dred pounds. In India, according to Forbes, 1 

 his proper burden is five hundred pounds, 

 though some powerful animals may carry from 



1 Oriental Memoirs, n. 69. 



