THE CAMi:L. 407 



t 



fail, and it is no longer capable of enduring much fatigue. 

 If it become lean after passing the sixteenth year, the Arabs 

 say that it can never again be rendered fat ; and in that case 

 they generally sell it at a low price to the peasants. When 

 fed upon tender verdure, this animal improves so much that 

 he seems no longer to belong to the hard-working or caravan 

 species ; and when he has attained the full degree of fatness, 

 his hump assumes the shape of a pyramid, extend ino- its base 

 X)ver the entire back. None of this description, however, are 

 found except among the wealthy Bedouins in the interior, who 

 keep whole herds solely for the purpose of propagating the 

 species. In some provinces butter is made of the camel's 

 milk ; the Aenezes and otlier northern tribes use it as drink, 

 and also as food for their horses. About the end of spring 

 the wool, which seldom exceeds two lbs. a-head, is easily 

 taken off the skin with a person's hand. All the flocks of 

 the different owners are branded with a hot iron, that they 

 may be recognised should they stray or be stolen. The prop- 

 erty A each has a peculiar mark, — a ring, a cross, or a tri- 

 angle, which is usually placed on the neck or the left shoul- 

 der. AMien called home in the evening, which is done by 

 uttering a sound resembling that of the letter r, every ani- 

 mal knows its master's face, and putting its own to his, drops 

 <lown upon its knees as if to ask for supper. 



The two grand services in which camels are employed are 

 riding and carriage. Among the Bedouins females are 

 always more esteemed and dearer than the males : the latter, 

 on the contrary, are most valued in Egypt and Syria, where 

 the quality chiefly wanted is strength in bearing hea\'y loads. 

 The wandering tribes in Nejed prefer he-camels for riding, 

 while the peasants use only the females on their journeys, 

 because they support thirst better. The term deloul is ap- 

 plied to those that are trained to the saddle, of which the 

 most swift and easy-paced are said to be from Oman, though 

 some of the Aenezes have likewise excellent breeds. They 

 differ little from the others in appearance, except that their 

 legs are somewhat more straight and slender ; but there is a 

 noble expression in their eye and in their whole deportment, 

 by which the generous among all animals may be distin- 

 guished. In Egypt and Nubia, the delouls are called hejein ; 

 Uiey are very docile, and have a pleasant amble. The deloul 

 ^dle, throughout over}' part of Arabia, is called shciad ; 



