324 MAMMALIA-CAMEL. 



often they are many weeks in travelling ; and their time of abstinence en- 

 dures as long as they are upon their journey. 



In Turkey, Persia, Egypt, Arabia, Barbary, kc, they use no other car- 

 riage for their merchandise, than camels, which is, of all their conveyances, 

 the most ready, and the cheapest. Merchants, and other travellers, assem- 

 ble themselves in caravans, to avoid the insults and piracies of the Arabs. 

 These caravans are often very numerous, and often composed of more 

 -camels than men. Everyone of these camels is loaded according to his 

 strength ; and he is so sensible of it himself, that when a heavier load than 

 usual is put upon him, he refuses it, by constantly remaining in his resting 

 posture, till he is lightened of some of his burden. 



Large and strong camels generally carry a thousand, and even twelve 

 hundred weight ; the smaller only six or seven hundred. In these com^ier- 

 cial journeys they do not travel quick ; and as the route is often seven or 

 eight hundred miles, they regulate their stages. They only walk, and go 

 every day ten or twelve miles ; they are disburthened every evening, and are 

 suffered to feed at liberty. If they are in a part of the country where there 

 is pasture, they eat enough in one hour to serve them twenty-four, and to 

 ruminate on, during the whole night ; but they seldom meet with pastures, 

 and this delicate food is not necessary for them. They even seem to prefer 

 wormwood, thistles, nettles, furze, and other thorny vegetables, to the 

 milder herbs ; and so long as they can find plants to browse on, they very 

 easily live without any drink. When a caravan arrives at a ivadey, or 

 watering place, in the desert, it usually halts for some days. Nothing can 

 exceed the delight with which both men and beasts reach one of these pools. 



The facility with which they abstain so long from drinking, is not pure 

 habit, but rather an effect of their formation. Independent of the four 

 stomachs, which are commonly found in ruminating animals, the camel is 

 possessed of a fifth bag, which serves him as a reservoir to retain the water. 

 This fifth stomach is peculiar to the camel. It is of so vast a capacity, as 

 to contain a great quantity of liquor, where it remains without corruption, 

 or without the other aliments being able to mix with it. When the animal 

 is pressed with thirst, or has occasion to dilute the dry food, and to mace- 

 rate it for rumination, he causes a part of this water to reascend into the 

 stomach, and even to the throat, by a simple contraction of the muscles. 



This animal bears about him all the marks of slavery and pain ; below 

 the breast, upon the sternum, is a thick and large callosity, as tough as 

 horn ; the like substance appears upon the joints of the legs. And, although 

 these callosities are to be met with in every animal, yet they plainly prove 

 that they are not natural, but produced by an excessive constraint and 

 pain, as appears from their being often found filled with pus. It is there- 

 fore evident, that this deformity proceeds from the custom to which these 

 animals are constrained, of forcing them, when quite young, to lie upon 

 their stomach with their legs bent under them, and in that cramped posture 



