118 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE. 



'Camels. 



in paasini; over a sandv, yielding surface, while on 

 hard or stony ground the elasticity of the pad 



tives ease to its movements. The camel kneels 

 own to be loaded, and kneeling is its natural state 

 of repose, and hence it is provided with certain 

 callosities upon which to throw the weight of the 

 body, both in kneeling down and rising up. The 

 largest of these callosities occupies the chest, 

 which is always brought to the ground ; one is 

 placed on each elbow and knee of the fore-limbs, 

 one on the front of each knee of the hind-limbs, and 

 a very small one on the outer side of each hock. 

 These natural cushions are not produced by the 

 habit of kneeling, as some have been ready to sus- 

 pect, for the young camel is born with them already 

 formed, and it may be observed that a similar cal- 

 lous pad is spread on the breast of the ostrich, 

 which dwells in the desert, and reclines upon its 

 chest. The camel is essentially the inhabitant of 

 a flat expaase of country, beneath a burning sky. 

 Elevated as it carries its head, it can discern the 

 green oasis in the sea of sand, at a vast distance ; 

 and so acute is its sense of smell, that it can scent 

 the far-distant water. To shield the large eyeball 

 from the glare of light, a beetling brow overarches 

 it, and long lashes fringe the upper lid. Incessantly 

 exposed to clouds of suffocating dust, the camel has 

 its nostrils so constructed as to exclude, as much as 

 possible, the particles of sand driven by the wind ; 

 they are in the form of slits, converging towards 

 each other, with elevated margins, the upper of 

 which is capable of being shut down like the lid of 

 a box, so as to close the aperture, or keep it open to 

 anv degree, at pleasure. 



hard and scanty is the desert fare upon which 

 this animal subsists; but the fertile meads and 

 flowery vales of our climate would afford it no 

 temptation. Thorny shrubs, date-leaves, and the 

 leaves and branches of the tamarisk, are its staple 

 diet ; and dates, beans, the hard kernels of which it 

 cnishes to powder, with cakes of barley, provided 

 by its master, suffice to refresh it on its wearisome 

 pilgrimage. Hence we see the necessity of its 

 strong incisors, canine teeth, and canine-like mo- 

 lars, which enable it to browze on the coarsest 

 shrubs with ease, and sever branches of considerable 

 thickness. With its powerful, cleft, prehensile lip 

 it draws the twigs or leaves to its mouth, or even 

 nips off the tender shoots, or holds the tuft of herb- 

 age as it is gradually undergoing mastication. 

 Hard and scanty, we have said, is the desert fare of 

 the camel, but oftentimes the supply fails for days, 

 or is to be obtained only in small quantities, and the 

 travel-worn beast is put upon short allowance ; 

 then it is that we recognise the utility of that 

 hump, which seemed at first a deformity. The 

 fatty mass is gradually absorbed into the system, 

 which thus receives nutriment; for the hump is 

 a magazine against a time of want, to which the 

 system has recourse when other supplies are in- 

 aidequate. 



It is a saying of the Arabs that the camel feeds 

 on its own hump, and in a certain sense they are 

 correct. After the wasting of this fatty mass, as 

 described, three or four months of repose and 

 copious nourishment are required to restore it to 

 its usual condition, and this does not take place till 

 the other parts are well replenished. When an 

 Arab is about to commence a journey, the first 

 thing about which he is solicitous is the state of his 

 camel's hump. 



We have already alluded to the cellular appara- 

 tus in the camel's stomach. At all times patient of 

 thirst, with this provision the camel can endure for 

 se\eral days, beyond what is reserved in the cells ; 

 and sometimes, it is said, driven by necessity, the 

 driver sacrifices his camel in order to obtain the 

 water, and prolong, perhaps preserve, his existence. 

 This may have happened, but the statement rests 

 on insufficient authority. 



From the data collected by Burckhardt there is 

 great difference among different breeds of camels as 

 respects the power of enduring thirst, according to 

 the mode of life to which they have been inured. 

 Thus the camels of Anatolia require water every 

 second day during a summer's journey ; but the 

 camels of Arabia can dispense with it until the 

 fourth, or even the fifth. In spring, when the young 

 herbage is succulent, the camel scarcely requires 

 to drink, and the journey across the great Syrian 

 desert, from Damascus to Baghdad, twenty-five 

 days, may be then performed without any water 

 being needed by or given to the camels. 



The senses of sight, hearing, and smell are ex- 

 quisitely acute in the camel : it is said to delight 

 in the jingle of the bells hung about its neck, for it 

 is often thus ornamented, as in ancient days, and as 

 pack-horses formerly were in England, perhaps in 

 order that stragglers may be enabled to rejoin the 

 caravan. (See Fig. 524.) Shells called cowries, 

 and even ornaments of silver, are also added : the 

 shells are strung in a semicirc\ilar form ; hence the 

 phrase, " ornaments like the moon." 



During a journey it is customary to halt about 

 four o'clock, to remove the loads and permit the 

 camels to feed. If the Arabs are desirous of pre- 

 venting them from straying too far, they tie their 

 fore-legs together, or bind the fetlock to the upper 

 joint by a cord. Towards evening they are called 

 in for their evening meal, and Jpil&ced in a kneeling 

 posture round the baggage. They do not browze 

 after dark, and seldom attempt to rise, but continue 

 the process of rumination for the greater portion 

 of the night. Amongst themselves they are some- 

 times very quarrelsome, and after the hardest day's 

 journey, no sooner is the baggage removed than 

 they begin to fight, and are prone to give each 

 other the most savage bites, and are not to be 

 separated without danger. (Fig. 532.) One of the 

 favourite amusements of the Turks of Asia Minor is 

 camel-fighting : each being previously muzzled, 

 they stnke each other's heads, twist their neck, 

 wrestle with their fore-legs, eSch endeavouring to 

 throw the other to the ground. Crowds attend to 

 witness the spectacle, and, as at the disgraceful dog- 

 fights of our country, the Turks will clap their 

 hands, encourage their respective favourites, and 

 bet upon their success. The Pasha of Smyrna used 

 frequently to regale the people with these games in 

 an enclosed square before his palace. It is, how- 

 ever, only at particular seasons that the temper of 

 the animal is thus excited, and that these combats 

 take place. 



The camel is often excessively loaded, and some- 

 times, inhumanly, the load is laici on sores or wounds ; 

 yet even then the animal neither refuses to rise 

 nor attempts to cast it off: when suffering and 

 irritated, however, he cries out, but his com- 

 plaint is only of injustice, and then it must be ex- 

 treme for him to complain at all. Fig. 532* is a de- 

 lineation of the head of an ill-used camel uttering 

 its cry of distress. When a camel, loaded or 

 unloaded, fails, from hunger and excessive fatigue, 

 and sinks down, it seldom gets on its legs again, and 

 is left to perish. Wellsted tells us that he often 

 passed them when thus abandoned, and remarked 

 the mournful looks with which they gazed on the 

 receding caravan. When the Arab is upbraided 

 with inhumanity, because he does not at once put 

 a period to the animal's sufferings, he answers, that 

 the law forbids the taking away of life save for food, 

 and even then pardon is to be asked for the neces- 

 sity which compels the act. When death approaches 

 the poor solitary beast, vultures collect around, and, 

 eager for food, commence their repast even before 

 life is extinct. The traveller continually sees re- 

 mains of this faithful servant of man, exhibiting 

 sometimes the perfect skeleton covered with a 

 shrunk, shrivelled hide, sometimes the bones only, 

 deprived of flesh, and bleached to dazzling white- 

 ness by the scorching rays of a desert sun. 



The Arabian or one-humped camel is usually 

 called, by way of distinction, the Dromedary, but 

 erroneously. The Dromedary is a light variety of 

 this species, and is termed Maherry or el Heirie in 

 the Arabian desert, and Sabayee in the North of 

 Africa. It is used principally for journeys of dis- 

 patch, carrying a single rider, or but a very light 

 burden ; and it will perform very long journeys in 

 an almost incredible space of time. " When thou 

 shalt meet a heirie, and say to the rider, ' Peace be 

 between us,' ere he shall have answered, 'There is 

 peace between us,' he will be far off, for his swift- 

 ness is like the wind," is an Arabian figure to 

 illustrate the fleetness of this saddle-dromedary. 

 This fleetness is however much overrated, and it is 

 less by positive speed than by extraordinary powers 

 of sustained exertion, day after day, through a time 

 and space which would ruin any other quadruped, 

 that it accomplishes such surprising journeys. 

 Urged to a gallop, it cannot maintain its pace for 

 half an hour, and is easily distanced by the horse : 

 but it can sustain a forced trot for several hours 

 together ; Wellsted says for 24 consecutive hours, 

 at the rate of from six to eight miles an hour. A 

 gentle and easy amble of five or five miles and a 

 half an hour is however the favourite quick pace of 

 the dromedary, and if allowed to persevere in it, 

 the animal will carry its rider an uninterrupted 

 journey of several days and nights. A common 

 caravan journey of 25 days is sometimes performed 

 in five days at this rate. This swift breed is of 

 great antiquity, and is referred to in several places 

 in the Scriptures. The camels of Oman are the 

 fleetest, the most beautiful, and the most high 

 prized. It would appear that there is also a swift 

 breed of the Bactrian or two-humped camel, which 

 is in request in China. 



The rate of travelling long journeys performed by 

 the heavy caravan, each camel carrying from 500 to 

 800 pounds weight, does not exceed two miles and 

 a half or two miles and three quarters an hour. 

 This, however, can be maintained for .50 days in 

 succession, and for eight hours each day ; but a 

 more lightly loaded caravan will not only travel 

 quicker, but continue the march for nine or ten 



hours daily. In 1751 Mr. Carmichael traversed 

 the great desert from Aleppo to Bussorah, his 

 course being 797 miles with a caravan of heavily- 

 loaded camels, and was .322 hours on the road. In 

 1781 Mr. Irwin travelled over the little desert from 

 Aleppo to Baghdad, his route being 480 miles, in 

 193J hours. 



The soil best adapted to the camel's foot is a dry 

 and hard, but fine and gravelly plain ; where the 

 sand is deep and soft, the loaded animal sinks at 

 every step, and becomes rapidly exhausted. It can 

 also ascend steep and rugged mountain-paths with 

 considerable ease, but, as Belzoni once experienced 

 to his cost, sometimes slips and rolls down. 



Besides the commercial caravans which traverse 

 the desert, there are also caravans of pilgrims to 

 Mecca, enjoined by the Mohammedan religion. 

 At Mecca meet the Mohammedans from Abyssinia 

 to India. It appears, according to Burckhardt, that 

 the pilgrimage from Damascus to Mecca with the 

 Syrian caravan cannot now be performed in the 

 most humble way under a cost of 125/. sterling; 

 and yet there are from five to seven great caravans 

 which regularly arrive at Mecca after the feast of 

 Bairam, which follows the Ramadhan. To have 

 visited the tomb of Mohammed, which entitles the 

 pilgrim to the proud distinction of being a hadji, is 

 an honour to which the meanest devotee aspires ; 

 and thus it is that within the walls of Mecca are 

 annually assembled vast bodies of Asiatics and 

 Africans, who have toiled thither, sustaining every 

 privation and misery, and of whom many, worn out 

 with fatigue, never return to claim the rewards of 

 their enthusiasm. In these extraordinary journeys 

 the camel sustains an important part, and, indeed, 

 without the services of these animals — some bear- 

 ing water in skins, some the merchandise of distant 

 lands, some the food and necessaries of the pilgrims, 

 and their own provender, and others the devotees — 

 the pilgrimage could not be accomplished. 



Mr. Parsons, who saw the pilgrim caravan set out 

 from Cairo about 40 years ago, has given a pro- 

 gramme of the procession, drawn up with all the 

 precision of a herald, and which occupies ten pages 

 of his quarto work. The cavalcade was six hours in 

 passing him. The most striking appearance to a 

 European must have been the camels, in every 

 variety of splendid trappings, laden with provisions, 

 clothes, and cooking apparatus, and water-skins, 

 and tents, and artillery, and holy sheiks, and Mame- 

 lukes. There were camels "with two brass field- 

 pieces each" — others " with bells and streamers" — 

 others " with men beating kettle-drums" — others 

 " covered with purple velvet" — others " with men 

 walking by their sides, playing on flutes and flageo- 

 lets" — others " handsomely ornamented about their 

 necks, their bridles being studded with silver, inter- 

 mixed with glass beads of all colours, and ostrich 

 feathers on their foreheads" — and, last of all, " the 

 sacred camel, an extraordinary large camel, with a 

 fine bridle studded with jewels and gold, and led by 

 two holy sheiks, in green, a square house or chapel 

 on his back." In addition to these camel splen- 

 dours there were horses with every variety of 

 caparison ; Mamelukes, and pikemen, and janissa- 

 ries, and agas, and the emir Hadjy (commander of 

 the pilgrimage) in robes of satin — to say nothing of 

 numberless " buffoons playing many pranks." Mr. 

 Parsons sums up the splendour of this pilgrim 

 caravan by declaring that "it is by much the 

 grander exhibition than the spectacle of the Lord 

 Mayor and Aldermen going in procession through 

 the City of London ;" — Ijut this may be doubted by 

 some as the exaggeration of a traveller, while others 

 may deem it impossible. 



Differing from the usual practice of commercial 

 caravans, the pilgrimage is performed chiefly by 

 night. The caravan generally moves about four 

 o'clock in the afternoon, and travels without stop- 

 ping till an hour or two after sunrise. A large 

 supply of torches is carried from Cairo, to be lighted 

 during the hours of darkness. The Bedouins, who 

 convey provisions for the troops, travel by day only, 

 and in advance of the caravan. The watering- 

 places on the route are regularly established. Each 

 is supplied with a large tank, and protected by 

 soldiers, who reside in a castle by the well through- 

 out the year. On parts of the route the wells are 

 frequent and the water good ; but on others, three 

 days of the journey frequently intervene between 

 one watering-place and another — and the fountain 

 is often brackish. When the Cairo caravan is com- 

 pletely assembled, and the formalities which we 

 have just descril)ed are gone through, the great 

 body of travellers begin to move, the stations of the 

 different parties of hadjis, according to their pro- 

 vinces and towns, being appointed, and rigidly 

 observed throughout the march. "This order is 

 determined by the geographical proximity of the 

 place from which each party comes. At Adjeroud, 

 where the Egyptian caravan halts on the second day's 

 march, it is supplied with water from Suez ; and 

 here it reposes a day and a night, to prepare for a 



