12 THE CAMEL 



on horses. Sufficient examples have been adduced from 

 the classics to prove incontestably the extremely ancient 

 origin of the camel, and its adoption and adaptation by 

 the nomadic and warlike races from the East, not only 

 as a peaceable beast of burden and post-riding animal, 

 but also as a fiery steed of war ; and yet here we in 

 this enlightened nineteenth century know less about him 

 than about any other animal under the sun. 

 introduc- The camel has been introduced into Europe at 



tion into . 



Europe different periods, but without success, not because the 

 climate and country have been unsuitable, but through 

 neglect and mismanagement, I should think, and 

 because he has never become a favourite like other 

 domestic quadrupeds. His first introduction, as far as 

 I can trace, was when he accompanied the soldiers of 

 the Fiery Crescent into Spain in 1019. Even after the 

 conquest of Granada in 1492. when Ferdinand V. put 

 an end to the Moorish kingdom, the camel still re- 

 mained in the southern provinces, but, despite the suit- 

 ability of the country, was finally allowed to die out. 



Gibbon, in the ' Decline and Fall,' chap. Ivi., when 

 speaking of the conquest of Sicily by Eoger, quotes 

 Malaterra, who states that the Arabs had about A.D. 

 1058 introduced the use of camels into Sicily. And 

 in the battle of Ceranico (between 1060 and 1090), 

 where 50,000 Saracens were overthrown by 136 

 Christian soldiers, ' without reckoning St. George, who 

 fought on horseback in the foremost ranks, the cap- 

 tive banners with four camels were reserved for the 

 successor of St. Peter.' 



At the solemnisation of the nuptials of the Emperor 

 Frederick II. of Germany with Isabella, the sister of 



