24 



THE USES OF THE CAMEL. 



bread-basket by any playful indulgence in light gymnastics 

 with his heels. As for shying, as a country horse will do at a 

 yellow dog, or at a lawyer with his green satchel, he rather 

 merits, on the contrary, the encomium bestowed upon the horse 

 that you remember Mr. Winkle was to ride once upon a time. 



" Shy," said the 'ostler, " vy, bless you, sir, he vouldn't shy, 

 if he vas to see a 'ole vagon-load o' monkeys a-comin' down the 

 street vith their tails shaved off." 



The gait of the camel, from its peculiar jerking motion, is at 

 first disagreeable to most persons, but you soon become accus- 

 tomed to it, after which the exercise, and the refresliing purity 

 of the air, at so great a height from the ground, operate as an 

 exhilarating tonic. A camel-ride of days — not of hours — is 

 always a pleasant experience to look back upon. Travellers 

 invariably refer with delight, and sometimes with the greatest 

 enthusiasm, to their journeys a-camel-back. 



And this — though apart from a strictly economic view of the 

 subject — is an important consideration : the pleasure to be 

 derived, and the vigorous health to be acquired, by a system of 

 camel-riding. Genuine camel-riding I mean — not as we stiffen 

 up our nautical nerves by a trip from the Elysian Fields, round 

 the light-ship, and so back to ISTew York — but camel-riding, 

 day after day, for a succession of days — a trip to Colorado or 

 Salt Lake, or down to Albuquerque, or Santa Fe. It would 

 do us good. I think it might become fashionable. Americans 

 •need a little change of this sort. They are too much in the 

 sugar and cotton line, as Halleck says. They deal too exclu- 

 sively with the inanimate forces of nature for their own real 

 comfort, delving in mines, going down into wells after oil, put- 

 ting steam into harness to ride behind it, and otherwise shame- 

 fully abusing it. They need a little more of that life in the 

 open air that gave Winthrop his bounding pulse, and made 

 him none the less a patriot for that. Glorious chap. What 

 an outrageous flow of spirits was on him when he struck Bos- 

 ton Tilicum in the backwoods of Oregon, and they had coffee 

 and crisped bacon for supper, and toasted doughboys in ridicu- 

 lous abundance ! 



"Three things," says Abd-el-Kader, *'give vigor of body and 

 joy of heart — air, exercise, and the aspect of things external." 

 Hear Kinglake on this subject: " To taste the cold breath of 



