374 THE CAMEL 



tion ; yet in this chasm of nature, by the help of 

 the camel, the Arabian finds safety and subsist- 

 ence. There are here and there found spots of 

 verdure, which, though remote from each other, 

 are, in a manner, approximated by the labour 

 and industry of the camel. Thus these deserts, 

 which present the stranger with nothing but ob- 

 jects of danger and sterility, afford the inhabitant 

 protection, food, and liberty. The Arabian lives 

 independent and tranquil in the midst of his so- 

 litudes ; and, instead of considering the vast so- 

 litudes spread round him as a restraint upon his 

 happiness, he is, by experience, taught to regard 

 them as the ramparts of his freedom. 



The camel is easily instructed in the methods 

 of taking up and supporting his burden : their 

 legs, a few days after they are produced, are bent 

 under their belly ; they are in this manner load- 

 ed, and taught to rise ; their burden is every day 

 thus increased, by insensible degrees, till the ani- 

 mal is capable of supporting a weight adequate to 

 its force. The same care is taken in making them 

 patient of hunger and thirst: while other ani- 

 mals receive their food at stated times, the camel 

 is restrained for days together, and these inter- 

 vals of famine are increased in proportion as the 

 animal seems capable of sustaining them. By 

 this method of education, they live five or six 

 days without food or water ; and their stomach 

 is formed most admirably by nature to fit them 

 for long abstinence : besides the four stomachs 

 which all animals have that chew the cud, (and 

 the camel is one of the number), it has a fifth 



