AND DROMEDARY. 373 



But it is very different in Arabia, and those 

 countries where the camel is turned to useful 

 purposes. It is there considered as a sacred ani- 

 mal, without whose help the natives could nei- 

 ther subsist, traffic, nor travel ; its milk makes a 

 part of their nourishment; they feed upon its 

 flesh, particularly when young ; they clothe 

 themselves with its hair, which it is seen to 

 moult regularly once a-year ; and if they fear 

 an invading enemy, their camels serve them in 

 flight, and in a single day they are known to tra- 

 vel above a hundred miles. Thus, by means of 

 the camel, an Arabian finds safety in his deserts : 

 all the armies upon earth might be lost in the 

 pursuit of a flying squadron of this country, 

 mounted upon their camels, and taking refuge in 

 solitudes where nothing interposes to stop their 

 flight, or to force them to wait the invader. 

 Nothing can be more dreary than the aspect 

 these sandy plains, that seem entirely forsaken 

 of life and vegetation : wherever the eye turns, 

 nothing is presented but a sterile and dusty soil, 

 sometimes torn up by the winds, and moving in 

 great waves along, which, when viewed from 

 an eminence, resemble less the earth than the 

 ocean. Here and there a few shrubs appear, that 

 only teach us to wish for the grove, that remind 

 us of the shade in these sultry climates, without 

 affording its refreshment : the return of morning, 

 which in other places carries an idea of cheerful- 

 ness, here serves only to enlighten the endless 

 and dreary waste, and to present the traveller 

 with an unfinished prospect of his forlorn situa- 



