THE CAMEL. 203 



troops, seated, each animal witli its driver, about one hundred 

 yards to a flank. 



" The ordinary infantry inspection being over, the men were 

 ordered to file to their camels, which up to this time had been 

 sitting most demurely, and to all appearance quite unconscious of 

 what was to take place. As the men approached, each camel 

 pricked up its head in great excitement, and looked most ludi- 

 crously like a gigantic turkey. 



" The men having taken post, and ' prepare to mount ' being 

 ordered, the anxiety of the animal increased fifty-fold, and almost 

 every one of the four hundred commenced that wonderful and 

 horrible turkey-like gobble all camels delight in; the uproar 

 increased at the word ' mount,' and continued until the comman- 

 dant, on. seeing every man in his place, ordered the 'rise,' when 

 in a second every animal returned to its normal state of quiet," 



Men of all nations and all ages seem to delight in watching 

 animals fighting, and camel-combats furnish one of the favourite 

 hohday amusements of the Turks of Asia Minor. MacParlane 

 describes one of these curious encounters : — " An enclosure is 

 made, and two camels, previously muzzled so that they cannot 

 hurt each other much, are driven in and incited to fight with each 

 other. Their mode of combat is curious ; they knock their heads 

 together (literally), twist their long necks, wrestle with their fore- 

 legs, almost like bipeds, and seem to direct their principal atten- 

 tion to the throwing down of the adversary. During this combat, 

 the Turks, deeply interested, will back, some one camel and some 

 the other ; and they will clap their hands and cry out the names 

 of their respective favourites, just as our amateurs do with their 

 dogs, or as the Spaniards, at their more splendid and more bloody 

 bull-fights, will echo the name of the' hardy bull or the gallant 

 matador. The Pasha of Smyrna used frequently to regale the 

 people with these spectacles in an enclosed square before his 

 palace ; and I saw them besides, once, at a Turkish wedding at the 

 village of Bournabah, near Smyrna, and another time on some 

 other festive occasion at Magnesia." 



John Leo, before quoted, gives a description of another way in 

 which these animals used to afford amusement. He writes:— 



