THE BACTRIAN CAMEL. 193 
the shifting sands. As the Camel is constantly forced to kneel in order to be 
loaded or relieved of its burden, it is furnished upon the knees and breast 
with thick callous pads, which support its weight without injuring the skin. 
Thus fitted by nature for its strange life, the Camel faces the desert sands 
with boldness, and traverses the arid regions with an ease and quiet celerity 
that has gained for the creature the title of “ Ship of the Desert.” 
The Camel is invariably employed as an animal of carriage when in its 
native land, and is able to support a load of five or six hundred pounds’ 
weight without being overtaxed. 
The pace of the Camel is not nearly so rapid as is generally supposed, and 
even the speed of the Heirie, or swift Camel, has been greatly exaggerated. 
The speed of the Heirie is seldom more than eight or ten miles per hour, 
but the endurance of the animal is so wonderful, that it is able to keep up- 
this pace for twenty hours without stopping. . 
The “hump” of the Camel is a very curious part of its structure, and is of 
great importance in the eyes of the Arabs, who judge of the condition of their 
beasts by the size, shape, and firmness of the hump. They say, and truly, 
that the Camel feeds upon his hump, for in proportion as the animal 
traverses the sandy wastes of its desert lands, and suffers from privation 
and fatigue, the hump diminishes. At the end of a long and painful jour- 
ney, the hump will often nearly vanish, and it cannot be restored to its 
pristine form until the animal has undergone a long course of good feeding. 
When an Arab is about to set forth on a desert journey, he pays 
great attention to the humps of his Camels, and watches them with jealous 
care. 
Independently of its value as a beast of burden, the Camel is most 
precious to its owners, as it supplies them with food and clothing. The 
milk mixed with meal is a favourite dish among the children of the desert, 
and is sometimes purposely kept until it is sour, in which state it is very 
grateful to the Arab palate, but especially nauseous to that of a European. 
The Arabs think that any man is sadly devoid of taste who prefers the sweet 
new milk to that which has been mellowed by time. A kind of very rancid 
butter is churned from the cream by a remarkably simple process, consisting 
of pouring the cream into a goatskin sack, and shaking it constantly until 
the butter is formed. 
‘The long hair of the Camel is spun into a coarse thread, and is employed 
in the manufacture of broad-cloths and similar articles. At certain times 
of the year, the Camel sheds its hair, in order to replace its old coat by a 
new one, and the Arabs avail themselves of the looseness with which the 
hair is at these times adherent to the skin, to pluck it away without 
injuring the animal. ; 
The height of an ordinary Camel at the shoulder is about six or seven feet, 
and its colour is a light brown, of various depths in different individuals, some 
specimens being nearly black, and others almost white. The Dromedary is 
the lighter breed of Camel, and is chiefly used for riding, while the ordinary 
Camel is employed as a beast of burden. Between the two animals there is 
about the same difference as between a dray-horse and a hunter, the Heirie 
being analogous to the racehorse. 
THE BACTRIAN CAMEL is readily to be distinguished from the ordinary 
Camel by the double hump which it bears on its back, and which is precisely 
analogous in its structure and office to that of the Arabian Camel. 
The general formation of this animal ; its lofty neck, raising its head high 
above the solar radiations from the heated ground; its valve-like nostrils, that 
close involuntarily if a grain of drifting sand should invade their precincts ; 
its wide cushion-like feet, and its powers of abstinence, prove that, like its 
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