204 WILD ANIMALS. 



"I have also Been, in Alcair, a camel that could dance at the sound 

 of a timbrel, being thereunto taught when he was young ; by this 

 means — first he was brought into a room like a stable, the pave- 

 ment whereof was made hot by a fire underneath it, and without 

 door stood a musician playing on his timbrel ; the camel, not for 

 love o£ the musick, but for the heat under his feet, lifted up first 

 one foot and then another, as they do which dance, and so, the 

 heat increasing, he likewise did lift up faster, whereunto he was 

 accustomed for the space of ten months, at every time one hour 

 and a half, during which time the timbrel still sounded, so that at 

 last use fained nature to such a strain that, hearing a timbrel, he 

 instantly remembered the fire that was wont to punish his feet, 

 and so presently would leap to and fro like a dancer in publick 

 spectacle, to the admiration of all beholders." 



Camel races are often held in eastern countries. The various 

 festivals of the Mahomedans are generally celebrated by this form 

 of sport. But the powers of the camels as well as the skill of the 

 riders are exhibited in perhaps their highest perfection in those 

 wonderful warlike games practised by the desert Arabs, in which 

 the speed, grace, and velocity of the various movements have elicited 

 the admiration of every traveller who has been fortunate enough 

 to witness one of these interesting and truly eastern spectacles. 



It is a singular thing that although the camel was known in 

 Egypt from the earliest antiquity, yet no ancient sculpture or 

 painting has been discovered in which it is represented. On the 

 Assyrian bas-reliefs it is, however, frequently depicted. In the 

 volume on '* Menageries " in the " Library of Entertaining Know- 

 ledge " this question, which is a very interesting one, is discussed, 

 and for those who do not possess the work it is worth while 

 quoting some portion of the article. " In a building at Ghirza, in 

 the state of Tripoli, Major Denham found the remains of a Eoman 

 temple, probably executed after the Christian era, of which he has 

 given a drawing ; and upon the frieze of the entablature we 

 observe a delineation of the camel. Near Mount Sinai, in Syria, 

 there are rude representations upon the rocks, which are described 

 by Niebuhr and Burckhardt, of goats, antelopes, and camels. But 

 with regard to Egypt, Burckhardt says, in a note to the passage 



