SPEEDY CAMELS 337 



he lacks grit, and if overloaded Avill sullenly refuse to rise. 

 The running-camel, on the other hand, shows blood in 

 every point. Though the outlines of the camel cannot 

 be said to be attractive, this creature, if you examine him, 

 has precisely the same points as a greyhound or a racer. 

 A fine, bony head, full nostril and throttle^ no extra meat, 

 enormous thorax, which girths even bigger than the por- 

 ter's, slender abdomen, almost suggesting a lack of mus- 

 cle in the loins, fine shapely limbs, with shin-bones and 

 sinews as clean cut as a two-year-old in trainings • hig-her- 

 standing feet, but with greater power to spread, so as to 

 get a proper footing on the sand ; and, above all, a look of 

 gentleness and yet courage, which is unmistakable in all 

 high-bred mammals. His saddle qualities correspond to 

 his physical. To ride a porter-camel is a task requiring 

 as much stomach as to fish for cod in a ground- swell. 

 To ride a runner is, when you learn the trick, not dis- 

 agreeable, but, like riding a horse, the trick must be learn- 

 ed. The camel- riders have a way of putting on a sort of 

 overhead check, and attaching it to the runner's nose-ring, 

 which shortens his gait down into a comparatively easy 

 amble. As to speed and endurance I can testify solely 

 from hearsay. The specimens illustrated are from Upper 

 Egypt. You can plainly see the running animal. 



I have sought no special opportunities of testing camels 

 on long journeys. My taste does not lie that way. My 

 riding of camels has been Philistinic, not professional. 

 But in lands where all your food comes in to market 

 a-camel-back ; where, whenever you go out riding or driv- 

 ing, you must make way for, or at least give half the road 

 to, a string of a dozen or twenty camels every half mile ; 

 where these beasts are the railroad, the steamboat, and 

 almost the electric cars — hold, it is our little friend, the 

 ass, who is this, and better than the electric car he is ; 



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