THE CAMEL AND DROMEDARY. 



fkin they make leather, the flefh is eaten (a), and the milk drank as a common 

 nourifhment ; the dung, when dry, ferves as litter for the Horfes to lie pn, and 

 for firing, to drefs their victuals ; and, of the urine, fal ammoniac is made. 



The Camel has always been reckoned among the riches of the Eaft. In 

 the enumeration of the treafures of the Patriarch Job, he is faid to have 

 pofl'efled fix thoufand Camels, and., when we confider the wonderful 

 combination of good qualities and properties concentered in this animal, we 

 mint allow it to be of almoft ineftimable value in the countries it inhabits. 

 Without the Camel, the immenfe delerts of Arabia would be impafiable ; 

 but, poffeflcd of this treafure, the Arabian lives fecure in the midfl of them, 

 and fears neither want nor enemies. The fervices of the Camel are not, 

 however, confined to this nation of plunderers ; the merchants of Turkey, 

 Perfia, Barbary, and Egypt, make ufe of them to carry all their merchandize, 

 and form themfelves with other travellers into numerous bodies, which they 

 call caravans, confifting often of many thoufands, and this they do to guard 

 each other from the infults of the plundering Arabs. 



A very hot climate is as fatal to the Camel as a very cold one. Arabia 

 feems to be its original country, and they are there more numerous, and 

 thrive better than elfewhere. They have been introduced into the Weft 

 India Iilands, but have not fucceeded ; this has been greatly owing to the 

 mifchief they have fuftained from fmall infects, called, by the natives, 

 Chegoes (b), which, inlinuating themfelves into the poor creature's feet, 

 produce inflammation, and at length painful, incurable ulcers, whereby they 

 are rendered lame, and wholly unfit for fervice. Perhaps this evil might be 

 prevented, by keeping the Camel's feet conftantly moiftened with a brufh 

 dipped in train oil, to which all infects have an averfion; but this is only 

 meant as a conjectural hint, and wants the authority of experience to 

 confirm it. 



(a) ** Atheneus relates that the Perfian monarchs had whole Camels ferved up at their tables." FennmU, 

 lib. iv. p. 130. 



(b) This infeft feems to be the pulex penitrans of Linnaeus, and the acarus of Brown. J fist. Jam. 



