CHARACTERISTICS AND TEMPERAMENT 47 



tiveness, for I consider that it is this very stupidity 

 which accounts for the revenge, and which is nothing 

 more than the law of self-preservation inherent in every 

 animal, which an excess of cruelty provokes to retali- 

 ation. Besides, surely it is a well-established fact that 

 the more ignorant and stupid man is the harder he 

 is to rouse, but when once roused the more revenge- 

 ful is his disposition, and the more dogged persist- 

 ence he shows in carrying through a scheme of re- 

 venge. And in a similar manner I think the same rule 

 applies to animal nature in general, and to a camel in 

 particular. 



The camel has been called obstinate, but this obstinacy 

 depends entirely on circumstances. He is not natur- 

 ally obstinate, and a young camel if treated kindly 

 and brought up properly has no sign of it in his 

 disposition. It is only when he falls into the hands 

 of men who do not know how to manage him and 

 who vent their ill-humour on him that he develops 

 this characteristic, and once he does, his extremely 

 passive dulness assists materially to intensify it. It 

 is my firm belief that the so-called obstinacy and 

 vice of many animals is nothing but the result of an 

 early vicious training by cruel, ignorant men. Surly, 

 sullen, morose, churlish, are all epithets, coupled with 

 strong adjectives, that I have heard hurled at the poor 

 brute, but I hardly think any one of them is appli- 

 cable. Painfully gloomy and lugubrious, and always 

 so, I have never in the whole course of my life seen 

 a camel, even a young one, playful or sportive. His 

 view of things is far too serious. He is so absorbed 

 and preoccupied that he has no time to waste on the 



