190 CAMEL AND DROMEDARY. 



to fight with each other. Their mode of attack is curious ; 

 they knock their heads together, (laterally,) twist their long 

 necks, wrestle with their fore legs, almost like bipeds, and 

 seem to direct their principal attention to the throwing 

 down of the, adversary. During this combat, the Turks, 

 deeply interested, will back some one camel and some the 

 other; and they will clap their hands and cry out the 

 names of their respective favorites, just as our amateurs 

 do with their dogs, or as the Spaniards, at their more 

 splendid and more bloody bull fights, will echo the name 

 of the hardy bull, or the gallant matador. 



"I once, however, chanced to see a less innocent con- 

 test, which I have noticed in my volume of travels. This 

 was on the plain between Mounts Sipylus and Tartalee, 

 and the town of Smyrna. It was a fight in downright 

 earnest. Two huge rivals broke away from the string, and 

 set to in spite of their drivers. They bit each other furi- 

 ously, and it was with great difficulty the devidgis suc- 

 ceeded in separating these, at other times, affectionate and 

 docile animals. The popular amusements which the 

 camel affords in other parts of the East are of a less fero- 

 cious nature. At a particular season of the year, the 

 Mahomedans in the neighborhood of Mount Sinai have 

 camel races, and this festival is a time of great rejoicing." 



Burckhardt relates an interesting story, which beauti- 

 fully illustrates the surprising instinct of the camel. It 

 was told to him by a man who had himself suffered all 

 the pangs of death : 



" In the month of August, a small caravan prepared to 

 set out from Berber to Daraou. It consisted of five mer- 

 chants and about thirty slaves, with a proportionate num- 

 ber of camels. Afraid of the robber Naym, who at that 

 time was in the habit of waylaying travellers about the 

 well of Nedjeym, and who had constant intelligence of the 

 departure of every caravan from Berber, they determined 

 to take a more eastern road, by the well Owareyk. They 



