THE EUillNANT OEDEE. 



229 



which it renders Man, by means of its strength, rapid move- 

 ments, abstemiousness, patience, and docility. 



Buffon has said that gold and silk are not the real riches of 

 the East, but that the Camel is its chief treasure. In fact, this 

 anmial feeds the inhabitants of these countries, both with its 

 milk and flesh, and furnishes clothes for them, fabricated from its ' 

 long and soft hair. For centuries sal-ammoniac, so useful to the 

 mamifacturer, was solely obtained from its excrement. But it is 

 chiefly as a means of conveyance and as a beast of burthen that it 



7 



Fig. 72.— Gamers Head. 



renders the most important service to Man. Without it those 

 nations which are seiDarated from one another by vast stretches of 

 desert sand could not trade with each other. "Without it the 

 Arab could not inhabit those arid countries in which he dwells. 

 With it, this " ship of the desert," as the Eastern nations have 

 called it in their figurative and symbolical language, life is pos- 

 sible even in such places as Buffon has called " the blank spots in 

 nature." 



From time immemorial the Camel has been the only means of 

 bearing commodities across the desert. By means of this patient 



