LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



37 



truction, three hundred myriads of fooi, a nun- 

 dred myriads of horse, ten myriads of scythe- 

 armed chariots, as many of fighting men mounted 

 on camels, and seventy myriads more of those 

 beasts destined for various services, were among 

 the hosts collected at her command. Camels also 

 carried the artificial elephants, which, to the 

 number of two millions, Semiramis employed in 

 her Mesopotamian expedition against the Indians, 

 in which she was wounded. But if the mother 

 of Vathek had her Alboufaki, the most hideous, 

 malignant, and swift of dromedaries, the daugh- 

 ter of Derceto was mistress of one which, though 

 it may not have rivalled that of Carathis in ugli- 

 ness and unearthly propensities, saved her by its 

 fleetness. Poor Zenobia was not so fortunate, 

 for the swiftness of her dromedaries could not 

 prevent her from falling into the hands of Aure- 

 lian. 



In ancient war, besides their use as beasts of 

 burthen, the swifter races, the maherries of that 

 day, drew the rapid scythed chariots, mowing 

 down masses of men in their course ; or carried 

 howmen, armed also with long swords, to enable 

 them to reach the cavalry and infantry in personal 

 encounters. 



As for camels, they are nourished in the Levant or 

 East parts (quoth Philemon Holland, in his transla- 

 tion of Pliny) among other heards of great cattell : 

 two kindes there be of them, the Bactrians and the 

 Arabick : differing herein, that the Bactrians have 

 two bunches upon their backs ; the other but one 

 apiece there, but they have another in their brest, 

 whereupon they rest and ly. Both sorts want the 

 upper row of teeth in their mouthes, like as bulls 

 and kine. In those parts from whence they come 

 they serve all to carry packs, like laboring horses, 

 and are put to service also in the wars, and are 

 backed of horsemen : their swiftness is compara- 

 ble to that of horses ; they grow to a just measure, 

 and exceed not a certain ordinary strength. The 

 camell, in his travelling, will not goe a iot farther 

 than his ordinary journey ; nether will he carry 

 more than his accustomed and usuall load. Natu- 

 rally they doe hate horses. They can abide to be 

 four daies together without drinke ; and when they 

 drinke or meet with water they fill their skin full 

 enough to serve both for time past and to come ; 

 but before they drinke, they must trample with their 

 feet to raise mud and sand, and so trouble the 

 water, otherwise they take no pleasure in drinking. 

 They live comraonly fifty yeares, and some of 

 them a hundred. These creatures also otherwhile 

 fall to be mad, so much as it is. Moreover, they 

 have a device to splay even the very females, to 

 make them fit for the warres ; for if they be not 

 covered, they become the stronger and more cour 

 ageous. 



There is one manifest error in this account, 

 showing that Pliny never could have looked into a 

 camel's mouth, which has two pointed incisive teeth 

 implanted in the upper jaw, forming with the six 

 lower incisors a formidable pair of nippers, admi- 

 rably adapted for cutting through the tough plants 

 which form the principal fopd of the animal. The 

 age, too, is nearly double that assigned to the 



camel by the moderns. The antipathy of the 

 horse, which is frequently alluded to by the an- 

 cients, still exists in full force, and appears to be 

 mutual, where use has not reconciled it to the 

 camel, 



Unjue aquilam cygnus, congrum muraena camelus 

 Odit equum. 



Cyrus availed himself of this antipathy on the 

 suggestion of Harpagus the Mede to the utter dis- 

 comfiture of Cnesus. He gathered together the 

 multitude of camels that followed his army with 

 provisions and baggage, caused their burthens to 

 be taken off, and armed men to mount them, and 

 then ordered them to go in advance of the army 

 against the Lydian horse. His infantry he placed 

 immediately behind the camels, and his cavalry ir 

 the rear of the infantry. Then he gave the cruel 

 word for no quarter, except to Crcesus, who was 

 on no account to be killed, whatever resistance he 

 might make. He thus disposed his troops, adds 

 Herodotus,* for this reason a horse is afraid of 

 a camel, and cannot endure its sight or smell ; and 

 he had recourse to this stratagem that the cavalry, 

 by which the Lydian expected to win, might be 

 useless to Croasus. And so it fell out ; for when 

 they joined battle, the horses no sooner smelt and 

 saw the camels than they turned tail and destroyed 

 the hopes of Cro2sus. 



Even, now, at Pisa, it is found necessary to 

 reconcile the horses to the sight of the camels in 

 order to prevent accidents ; and where the pre- 

 cautions of such training have not been adopted, 

 the sudden and dangerous terror with which a horse 

 is seized on coming unexpectedly upon one of 

 them is excessive. 



The madness alluded to by Pliny probably re- 

 fers to the violence of the male at certain seasons,, 

 when a portion of the velum palati is protruded 

 with a strange and loud noise. Cupid makes 

 many of his votaries play as strange love-pranks 

 as ever the crazy Don performed ; but when he 

 bestrides a camel, he makes the impassioned brute 

 absolutely rabid. 



Advantage is taken of this state of excitement 

 by the turbaned Turk ; and two rivals are pitted, 

 who at once rush at each other, and a regular 

 combat follows. Before they are let go they are 

 muzzled after a fashion, so that no deadly injury 

 can ensue. Then they turn to like Cornish wrest- 

 lers, standing on their own hind legs, embracing' 

 each other with their anterior extremities, twist- 

 ing their necks together and each striving to over- 

 throw his adversary. Fired at the sight, the 

 Turk loses his staid and apathetic demeanor. He 

 claps his hands, and shouts out the name of the 

 favorite which he has backed with an energy wor- 

 thy of Hockley Hole and Marylebone in the old 

 time, before modern statutes had prohibited the 

 brutalizing dog-fights, bull and badger baits, which, 

 in other days, formed the amusement of the high 

 and low vulgar. A vestige of the old English 

 spirit still lingers, and snatches of ancient songs 



79. 



