CAMEL-RIDING. 



23 



fashion ; our camels are laden, our dromedaries are waiting, not 

 indeed champing the bit and pawing the ground like fiery 

 coursers, but, with half-shut eye, lazily ' cliewing the cud of 

 sweet and bitter fancy.' Let us mount our ungainly steeds and 

 away to the desert. 



" The camel, as everybody knows, kneels to receive his load 

 and his rider, and the burden he can rise with is said to be the 

 measure of what he is able to carry. The Bedouins often climb 

 to the saddle without bringing the camel to his knees, or even 

 stopping him, by putting one foot on the callus of the knee, 

 and so clambering up by the neck and shoulder ; but I recom- 

 mend no such experiments to you. You will find mounting 

 in the ordinary way ticklish enough in the beginning, and you 

 run considerable risk at first of going off" by a very illogical a 

 priori^ or a posteriori movement, as the animal rises. It is a 

 bad eminence to fall from, and until you have had considerable 

 practice in this sort of slack-rope exercise, it is good to hold 

 fast by the saddle-pins, both fore and aft, while the dromedary 

 is unfolding his joints and working his traverse upwards. 

 Further, see that your attendant keeps one foot on your camel's 

 knee until you are well posited and balanced, for he is apt to 

 start up on feeling the weight of his rider, and in this case you 

 may very likely go up on one side and come down on the 

 other. When all is ready, you give the signal, your Arab re- 

 leases the camel, a sudden jerk from behind pitches you upon 

 the pommel as he raises his haunches (for, as we have told you 

 before, he comes up stern foremost), and then a swell from the 

 stem throws you aft, and so on zig-zag until he is fairly up, 

 when, after a little more rolling, while he is poising and steady- 

 ing, backing and filling, and getting his feet into marching 

 order, he steps off, and you are at last underweigh on your 

 quest for Mesopotamia, Arabia Petrsea, or the oasis of Jupiter 

 Ammon." 



Once on the road, you feel a sense of security in your lofty 

 seat that is quite encouraging. You have no fear that he will 

 stampede on hearing the shriek of a locomotive, or an organ- 

 grinder entertaining the community with the tune of " Sweet 

 Home." If he should happen to stumble and fall, which is a 

 very unusual occurrence, he comes down slow and sure, and 

 does not immediately afterwards threaten your brains or your 



