178 WILD ANIMALS. 



When we read of the number of camels men in former ages 

 were enabled to assemble together at one time for special purposes 

 it becomes obvious that these animals are gradually becoming 

 scarcer, although they are still numerous in many places. Bag- 

 dad's celebrated ruler of the eighth century, Haroun-al-Raschid, 

 made nine pilgrimages to the prophet's shrine with a caravan of 

 120,000 camels. It would be almost impossible to collect so many 

 together at the present day. 



The uses and abuses of the camel have been the prominent 

 feature in the East from time immemorial to the days of Lord 

 Wolseley and the futile Soudan campaign. The history of this 

 animal is woven in the web of the history of the world. From 

 the earliest age of which we have any record we find the camel 

 associated with either the commerce, conquest, or civiUzing 

 influences of the people. The wealth of the Jewish forefathers, 

 those dwellers on the plains, was not in gold or silver, but in flocks 

 and camels. The Reubenites, when they made war on the 

 Hagarites, the Arabs of the "Western Beka took 50,000 camels, 

 and when the Midianites and the Amalekites invaded Israel in the 

 days of Gideon, " Their camels were without number, as the sand 

 by the sea-side for multitude." The conqueror of Scinde, some 

 thousands of years later, marching to the conquest of the Ameer's 

 stronghold, used them, and cursed them, exclaiming, " Oh ! the 

 baggage, the baggage ! it is enough to drive one mad ! We have 

 fifteen hundred camels, with their confounded long necks, each 

 occupying fifteen feet ! Fancy these long devils in a defile, four 

 miles and a quarter of them ! " 



And again he pities them, for describing an Indian army on 

 the march, with its enormous baggage-train, requiring perhaps 

 20,000 camels, he writes : " Here they are jostling — crowding in 

 now — spreading widely then — at times the strong animals far in 

 front — the weaker as far in rear — some dying — some throwing 

 their loads and running away — the tired servants labouring after, 

 and often — very often getting slain, or, losing the column, perish- 

 ing miserably — thousands of camels dying, not only from fatigue, 

 but from ill-usage by both soldiers and the drivers, and from being 

 always overloaded. Such is the picture of the baggage of an 



