INTRODUCTION 



another, and so save time and fatigue, the camels 

 being left in the rear and the men employed as 

 infantry. 



In the account of the battle of Magnesia, 

 fought between the Eomans and the Syrians, under 

 Antiochus the Great, in 190 B.C., a similar camel corps 

 is also mentioned. Gibbon too, in his 'Decline and 

 Fall of the Eoman Empire,' in chap, xli., speaking of 

 the eunuch Solomon's battles after leaving Carthage 

 (about the year A.D. 535) says : ' The Moors depended on 

 their multitudes, their swiftness, and their inaccessible 

 mountains, and the aspect and smell of their camels Supposed 



. antipathy 



are said to have produced some confusion in the of the 

 Eoman cavalry.' And in a note he adds ; ' This the camel 

 natural antipathy of the horse for the camel is affirmed 

 by the ancients ; * but it is disproved by daily experi- 

 ence and derided by the best judges, the Orientals.' 2 



This, I maintain, is wrong, horses that have 

 never seen or never been brought into contact with 

 camels show a distinct dislike, almost dread, of them 

 at first, and will shy tremendously; while well-bred 

 horses and those of a highly nervous disposition will 

 not go near them. Of course they can very soon 

 be broken of this habit, especially the latter class, and 

 with proper management will quickly grow accustomed 

 to them. But a horse will not as a rule make friends 

 with or show any affection for a camel, though they 

 will do so with animals of an altogether different 

 species from themselves, such as sheep, goats, cats, with 



1 Xenophon, Cyropaedia, vi. 438, vii. 483 (ed. Hutchinson). Polyaen. 

 Stratagem, vii. 6. Pliny, Natural History, viii. 26. Aelian, De Natur'a 

 Animal, iii. c. 7. 



2 Voyage d'Olearius, p. 553. 



