36 



LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



and, acting upon this principle, the camel-drivers 

 in some parts of Africa Senegal for instance 

 were wont, soon after the birth of a young camel, 

 to tie its feet under its belly, throw a large cloth 

 over its back, and place heavy stones upon each 

 of the corners of the cloth that rested on the 

 ground. Thus did the Moors accustom the ani- 

 mal to receive the loads which it was destined to 

 carry through a life of labor, generally prolonged 

 to twenty years. Females, indeed, and such for- 

 tunate males as are exempt from work, are said to 

 live for twenty-five or even thirty years. 



The European mode of training is not com- 

 menced till the camel has attained the age of four 

 years, when the trainers first double up one of his 

 fore legs, which they bind fast with a cord ; this 

 they pull, and thus compel the trainee to come 

 down upon his bent knee. But all pupils are 

 not equally docile ; and if this method should 

 fail, as it sometimes does, both legs are tied up, 

 and the camel falls upon both knees, and on the 

 callosity which protects the breast. This opera- 

 tion is often accompanied by a cry and a slight 

 application of the whip from the trainer ; and, by 

 degrees, the animal learns at last to lie down 

 upon his belly, with its legs doubled under it, at 

 the well-remembered cry and blow, accompanied 

 by a jerk of its halter. Having attained so 

 much obedience, the trainer proceeds to place a 

 pack-saddle on the creature's back. When it is 

 accustomed to this appendage a light load is put 

 on, and gradually increased till it reaches the 

 maximum, which is generally understood to be 

 fourteen killogrammes, or above eight hundred 

 pounds, for a full-grown camel. 



Such is the mode practised at Pisa ; and though 

 the Moors brought the animal into Spain, that 

 appears to be the only locality in Europe where 

 the camel is now bred. The arid plains and 

 stunted vegetation at San Rossora seem to have 

 pointed it out as the proper place for this experi- 

 ment ; but though success attends it, the breed 

 seems to dwindle. The foal is obliged to be held 

 up by attendants to take the maternal nourish- 

 ment, which in a state of nature the new-born 

 creature must be in a condition to obtain without 

 assistance, or continuation of the species must 

 cease. And here it may be observed, that we 

 have no authentic account of the camel in a genu- 

 ine wild state. The earliest records, from the 

 sacred Scripture downwards, present it in a do- 

 mesticated state. When Joseph was cast by his 

 brethren into the pit, and the criminal fraternity 

 sat down to eat bread, they lifted up their eyes 

 and looked, and behold a company of Ishmaelites 

 came from Gilead with their camels, bearing 

 spicery, and balm, and myrrh, going to carry it 

 down 'to Egypt. And yet in Egypt itself no trace 

 appears to have been observed on the multitudinous 

 ancient monuments of the form. It is, indeed, to 

 be seen on the frieze of the building at Ghirza, 

 where it is introduced four several times ; and in 

 one instance a female dromedary is suckling her 

 young one. When Gideon arose and slew Zebah 



and Zalmunna, he took away the ornaments that 

 were on their camels' necks. Jacob divided the 

 people that was with him, and the flocks and the 

 herds, and the camels, into two bands ; and thirty 

 milch camels and their colts formed part of the 

 present which he sent to propitiate his ill-used 

 brother Esau. The camel appears in the forbid- 

 den list set forth in Leviticus, because he cheweth 

 the cud but divideth not the hoof. The Chal- 

 deans made out three bands and fell upon Job's 

 camels, of which he had three thousand, and car- 

 ried them away ; and when the Lord blessed the 

 latter end of Job more than his beginning, the 

 comforted patriarch possessed six thousand. 

 When Xerxes invaded Greece camels figured as 

 part of his enormous host. The Arabians were 

 stationed in the rear, that the horses might not be 

 frightened, because they cannot endure camels 

 of which more anon ; and when the Great King 

 was inarching through the Paeonian and Crestoni- 

 an territories towards the river Echidorus, lions 

 came down in the night and attacked the camels, 

 seizing them only, and leaving man and every 

 other beast unharmed. Herodotus expresses his 

 wonder that the lions should abstain from all the 

 rest and set upon the camels beasts which they 

 had never before seen or tried,* as was probably 

 the case with those lions. Before the camel was 

 known in Africa, beyond the Nile, the country 

 abounded with lions, and was a kind of preserve 

 whence the proconsuls drew their supplies for 

 the Roman amphitheatre ; but about the middle of 

 the third century, when the Arabs entered Africa, 

 the numbers of these ravenous beasts of prey 

 were greatly diminished ; so much so, indeed, 

 that hunting them was forbidden, except in the 

 case of privileged persons a prohibition which 

 originated in the apprehension that there would 

 be few or none left for the circus. Honorius put 

 an end to this prohibition, and then the destruc- 

 tion of the lions followed ; cultivation increased ; 

 camels were introduced, facilitating communica- 

 tion from one point to another without risk of 

 leonine attack ; and civilization advanced. 



It has been already observed that no authentic 

 record appears of the existence of camels in a 

 wild state. f And though M. Desmoulins is of 

 opinion that they were to be found in that state 

 in Arabia at tne beginning of the second century, 

 and though the natives of Central Africa declare 

 that wild camels wander free in the mountains 

 where European feet have never trod, such asser- 

 tions are by no means conclusive : for granting 

 them to be true, such camels may have been de- 

 scended from domesticated parents, which had, 

 like the American horses, escaped from their 

 owners. In one expedition, directed by the great 

 Assyrian queen, whom Ninus coveted from the 

 despairing Menones, and obtained to his own des- 



* Polymnia, 125. 



t With reference to this question it may be worthy of 

 note, that the fossil remains of a camel are said to have 

 been detected by Col. Cautley in the sub-Himalayan 

 range. 



