5l8 UNGULATA. 



The Arabs desire three things in a good Camel ; he must have a soft 

 back, must not require the whip, and must not scream when he gets up 

 or lies down. The first requisite is a necessary one, even for an Arab. 

 Nothing is so disagreeable as the gait of the Camel. An Englishman 

 declares that any one who wishes to practise camel-riding at home can 

 do so by taking a music-stool, screwing it up as high as possible, putting 

 it into a cart without springs, sitting on the top of it cross-legged, and 

 having the cart driven diagonally over a newly ploughed field. The 

 Arab mode of riding is to pass one leg over the upright pommel, which 

 is merely a wooden peg or stake, and to hitch the other leg over the 

 dangling foot. When the Camel increases its speed to a gallop, the rider 

 grasps with his right-hand the cantle of the saddle, for the movement of 

 the animal when galloping throws the rider forward with a violent jerk. 

 The second requisite of a good camel, that is, not to require the whip, 

 we can all understand. The third, however, can only be appreciated by 

 those who have been present when a pack-camel has been loaded. The 

 voice of the Camel cannot be described. Groans, moans, growls, bellow- 

 ings, and screams follow in a most extraordinary succession. A traveler 

 gives the following account of the Camel's behavior. 



" The camel, when he is not eating or drinking or being loaded, is 

 invariably chewing the cud. His long, crooked jaw is in perpetual 

 motion, and when he is told to lie down to receive his burden, he 

 does so without varying this incessant masticatory process. He awk- 

 wardly bends his fore-knees, drags his hind-legs under him, and comes 

 to the ground with a curious kind of flop. All this time his long, melan- 

 choly face shows not the slightest indication that he knows what he is 

 lying down for ; and this unmistakable hypocrisy, I think, stamps the 

 Camel as an animal of a very high order of intellect. But in a few 

 seconds the expression on the Camel's face undergoes a striking altera- 

 tion. As he sees the driver approaching him with a box on his shoulder 

 he seems at last to understand the indignity and torture to which he is 

 about to be submitted, and the astonishment, virtuous indignation, and 

 dismay on the ill-used animal's countenance ought certainly to make 

 some impression on the stony heart of the driver. They never have the 

 slightest effect. The man binds the first box on the wretched animal's 

 back, and goes away to get another. Then the Camel, wisely abandon- 

 ing his efforts to move man to compassion, points his hairy nose upward, 

 an*l howls his wrongs to the skies. 



