42 THE CAMEL 



CHAPTER II 



CHAEACTEBISTICS AND TEMPERAMENT 



THE Camel has always been looked upon as a patient, 

 docile animal, more capable of endurance and absti- 

 nence from food and water in sandy and arid regions 

 than any other animal: hence the poetical name, 

 < Ship of the Desert,' which the unpoetical Arab has 

 bestowed on him. That he is essentially a denizen of 

 a flat country, and that Nature never really intended 

 him for a cold and mountainous region, his pecu- 

 liar structural formation pretty clearly demonstrates. 

 Those of the Arabian species which are found in 

 Afghanistan (and other parts of Central Asia of a 

 similar nature) have, I should imagine, become accli- 

 matised, and inured to the different conditions to 

 which they originally were unaccustomed ; after many 

 centuries of living in cold, hilly countries, Nature has 

 come to the rescue and clothed them with thick, long 

 coats of hair. But for all this they have never become 

 mountain climbers in the strict sense of the word, and 

 never will, for reasons already given, although, of course, 

 through sheer force of habit they are far more at home 

 than the camel from a plain country would be. In a 

 few words, the camel was never meant for climbing, and 

 it is useless to compare him with the mule, donkey, or 

 hill pony, all three of which are as handy and as 



