126 THE CAMEL 



the exception to wait until the camel is five years old, 

 and the great tribes of Asia and North Africa, who are 

 the Pickfords of their own portion of the world, have 

 not always got a sufficient supply of older camels with 

 which to meet the demand, so, will-he-nill-he, are 

 obliged to fall back on the four- and five-year olds. 

 And even during his fourth and fifth year a lot of 

 mischief can be done, and I maintain that it is too 

 young to begin. If the camel not has done growing 

 until he is sixteen, or even, for the sake of argument, 

 say ten years of age, to work him at four or five years 

 is to work him too soon, and it would be wiser to wait 

 until he was seven, or at all events six years old ; but 

 though this is a point that I feel positive about, I 

 should like to establish beyond doubt the exact age at 

 which the growth of the camel does terminate before 

 committing myself definitely to any opinion. Besides, 

 one cannot depend on Orientals in a case of this nature, 

 for they are not only indifferent but careless as to age, 

 keeping no written records, and trusting entirely to 

 memory, a faculty which with them especially is apt to 

 be faulty, untrustworthy, and treacherous as well. 

 Direct In this way and no other can the great mortality 



among young camels be satisfactorily accounted for, 

 and the evils that spring from them are obvious. In 

 the first place the young animal is forced before its 

 time, its legitimate supply of nourishment stopped, and 

 a supply of food given it that its internal machinery 

 cannot cope with, the organs that do the grinding and 

 masticating being still closed, and not fully formed for 

 the ultimate purpose for which they were designed. 

 By thus interfering with the regular order in which 



