188 CAMEL AND DROMEDARY. 



formed, they know the tunes which the camels love best to 

 hear, and relieve each other by singing alternately. 



They have a great plenty of milk, which is thick, and 

 nourishing even for the human species, if it is mixed with 

 more than an equal quantity of water. " This milk is the 

 produce of an animal which we call sacred, and it causes 

 long life," said the generous Sidi Hamet, who redeemed 

 Captain Riley and three of his companions from slavery ; 

 " those who live on nothing else are free from disorders of 

 every kind. But only carry the same people off the des- 

 ert, and let them live on meat, bread, and fruits, they then 

 become subject to pain and sickness, and live out only 

 half their days. I myself," added he, "always feel well 

 when I live only on the milk, even though I do not get 

 half as much as I want ; for then I am strong, and can 

 bear heat, cold, and fatigue, much better than when I sub- 

 sist on flesh, and have plenty of good water; and if I could 

 have sufficient of that, I would never taste meat again." 



The females seldom do any labor while they are with 

 young, but are suffered to bring forth at liberty. The profit 

 which arises from their produce, and from their milk, per- 

 haps surpasses that which is got from their labor. In 

 general, the fatter the camels are, the more capable they 

 are of enduring great fatigues. Their haunches appear to 

 be formed only from the superabundance of nourishment ; 

 for, in long journeys, where they are obliged to stint them in 

 their food, and where they suffer both hunger and thirst, 

 these haunches gradually diminish, and are reduced 

 almost even, and the eminences are only discovered by 

 the height of the hair, which is always much longer upon 

 these parts than upon any other part of the back. 



The young camel sucks its mother a year ; and when 

 they want to bring him up so as to make him strong and 

 robust, they leave him at liberty to suck or graze for a 

 longer time, nor begin to load him, or put him to labor, 



