THE CAMEL. l£>7 



have their legs bent under them, and a slight weight 

 placed upon their back, which, as their strength and 

 growth augment, is gradually and proportionably in- 

 creased. The large camels are capable of carrying 

 from a thousand to twelve hundred weight ; but fre- 

 quently the poor creatures are so unmercifully laden, 

 that they find it absolutely impossible to rise ; when 

 they sagaciously remain in a recumbent posture until 

 a part of their burden is removed. 



In Turkey, Persia, Arabia, Barbary, and Egypt, 

 their whole commerce is carried on by the means of 

 these useful animals. Travellers and merchants form 

 themselves into a body, for the sake of securing their 

 persons and property from the formidable banditti 

 which infest those plains. This assemblage is called a 

 caravan, and is said sometimes to muster ten thousand 

 strong: in these trading journeys they travel but 

 slowly, never exceeding thirty-five miles a day ; though, 

 when the camel is not heavily laden, it is capable of 

 going at a much greater rate. Every evening, when 

 they arrive at the end of their stage, the animal is 

 permitted to eat, if it can find a supply of food ; and 

 its favourite fare is the cassia, thistles, and those coarser 

 kind of vegetables which other animals reject and dis- 

 dain. Contrary to the generality of ruminating quad- 

 rupeds, the camel's stomach is formed peculiar to it- 

 self; and whilst they have four distinct stomachs for 

 their nutriment, the camel alone is endowed with a 

 fifth, which serves as a reservoir to contain a quantity 

 of water ; winch, by a contraction of the muscles, it 

 can throw up into the mouth, and by that means is 

 enabled to swallow the driest food, and go for several 

 days together without a fresh supply of drink. 



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