CHARACTERISTICS AND TEMPERAMENT 59 



and whinnying at your approach, rubbing his nose up 

 against you, licking your hand, and learning his name 

 like a dog. Who so keen in a clinking run after the 

 wily fox or the mignty boar as a good horse ? When 

 you are on him, he has a fellow-feeling with you 

 reciprocates your sentiments, shares your ardour and 

 excitement in the chase, enters into the spirit of it with 

 a fire and a will, a kind of animal magnetism, which 

 passes between you, which makes your very heart go 

 out to him, and you almost feel as if you and he 

 were one and the same being ! You not only look on 

 him as an old friend, but feel for and cherish him as 

 one ; and what better friend or companion has any man 

 in the South African veldt, or in the Australian bush, 

 than his horse ? He will do for you what he will not 

 do for a stranger ; to a camel there is no distinction. 

 What makes a horse fly a five-barred gate or a stone 

 wall ; what makes him face the tusks of an infuriated 

 boar ; or, if he scents danger round about, what adds 

 to his courage but confidence in his friend and master 

 whom he trusts ? The horse is a gentleman, and the 

 camel is a boor. In a few words, it is a question of 

 united self-interests and hearty co-operation between 

 man and horse. The mule and the donkey, too, if you 

 treat them kindly, will appreciate your attention and 

 reciprocate it. Not so the camel. He neither gives 

 nor takes. He is wrapped up entirely in himself and 

 his grievances, and they are on occasions very grievous, 

 poor wretch ! Like the tortoise, he prefers to keep 

 himself to himself, for out of the shell of his impene- 

 trable reserve he will not come, and, what is more, no 

 inducement will make him. 



