202 WILD ANIMALS. 



for the tiller-rope-like guiding strings attached to the wooden 

 studs let into his nostrils. Then they give themselves as many 

 airs, and they are as fanciful about the particular objects they 

 elect to shy at, or to object to, as many horses, and to make one 

 go pleasantly a light hand is even of more consequence than in 

 horsemanship, for these beasts have as many peculiarities of 

 tender or hard nostril as a horse has of mouth. This, however, 

 once understood, I do not know a more pleasant hack, or one of 

 greater service to a sportsman than a well-broken riding camel ; 

 one that will sit quietly while being mounted, and .will not pull. 

 The exertion, so often spoken about, of camelmanship, if there be 

 such a word, is only imaginary; the rider has only to sit as 

 loosely as possible^ — ^that is, not to grip the saddle, and to give 

 his arms, legs, and body any play that will prevent their resisting 

 the motion of the huge animal ; to sit native-like ; in fact, all 

 ' legs and wings.' This once accomplished, he may ride for 

 hours and for days together without feeling fatigued. . . . 



"A camel must be a very tender- skinned animal, for the slightest 

 prick with a hunting spur will cause blood to spring from the 

 shoulder, the place where the rider's heels naturally come to. 

 The enforced acknowledgment of the rank of my dog was the 

 only act of intelligence I have ever known any camel display. 

 Much as we were together, I could never get my camel to feed 

 from my hand, an expression of confidence in me that I have 

 gained from every other animal that I have tried to be on good 

 terms with except all the camels I have ever been acquainted 

 with, some members of a herd of Burman buffaloes I possessed 

 while at Tounghoo, and a wild dog. The most ridiculous instance 

 of this impatience of camels I have ever seen was at an inspection 

 of that well-known regiment, Ross's Camel Corps, by a general on 

 whom I was in attendance as a staff officer, 



" The corps, consisting, if I remember right, of four troops of 

 one hundred men each, two of British soldiers — picked, I beheve, 

 principally from the Rifle Brigade — and two of Seikhs, the most 

 warlike race in India, was a sight to gladden the eye of any man 

 proud of being a soldier. They were drawn up in column and 

 dismounted, with their four hundred camels, also in column of 



