THE CAMEL. 205 



wh.ere he mentions these figures, which appear to have been cut 

 by the shepherds of the country, ' Among the innumerable 

 paintings and sculptures in the temples and tombs of Egypt, I 

 never met with a single instance of the representation of a camel.' 

 .... Whether we are to infer from this circumstance that the 

 camel was only partially known in Egypt, and did not cross the Nile 

 till a period more recent than that of the Egyptian templeSj we will 

 not undertake to determine. M. Desmoulins, however, has written 

 a very learned, and in most respects satisfactory, essayj to prove 

 that the camel was not spread over Africa till after the Christian 

 era. He considers that the question of existence, or the absence 

 of the camel in Africa, at the periods of the great prosperity of 

 that country, inasmuch as it belongs to the history of civil society, 

 and to the theory of the means by which society is established 

 and perfected, demands an especial solution. He shows on the 

 one hand, that, from the highest antiquity, the camel was em- 

 ployed in the domestic and military service of the Asiatic people ; 

 and that the ancient writers constantly speak, both incidentally 

 and directly, of this animal when they notice Asia generally, or 

 Arabia particularly. On the contrary, he affirms that all the 

 Greek or Latin writers from the time of Herodotus, in describing 

 the wars with Africa, or the peaceful voyages that were made 

 thither — whether their descriptions be given as geographers or 

 naturalists— whether they describe the singularities of the country;, 

 or enumerate its animals— never once mention the camel. M. 

 Desmoulins maintains that the necessity of the subject would have 

 compelled such notices, if the animal had existed on the African 

 continent. He goes on to show, from various authorities and 

 inferences which appear sound, that until the third century of the 

 Christian era there were no camels west of the Nile; and these 

 animals did not pass the isthmus of Suez until the first excursions 

 of the Arabs or Saracens, whOj about the middle of the fourth cen- 

 tury, according to Ammianus Marcellinus, wandered with their 

 camels upon the deserts which extend from Assyria to the cataracts 

 of the Nile. The appearance of camels on the west Nile took 

 place, he affirms, for the first time when the Vandals and Moors 

 revolted, after the departure of Belisarius for the reconquest of 



