18 



THE USES OF THE CAMEL. 



noble pace of the ostrich ; and also speaks of him. as rivalling 

 the gazelle in fleetness. He says that the Bedouin of the desert 

 gives his horse cameFs milk to drink to stimulate him in the 

 race, and adds that a man, by drinking it exclusively for a con- 

 siderable length of time, acquires such swiftness of foot as to 

 compete successfully with the horse in running. 



" When you shall meet a mahari," or swift camel, says an 

 old Arab proverb, " and shall say unto his rider, Salem Aleih, 

 ere he shall have answered you Aleih Salem^ he will be afar off 

 and out of sight, for his fleetness is as the wnnd." 



A writer in Chambers' Journal says he has seen the camel 

 in Northern India move off at the rate of eighteen miles an 

 hour with a piece of light artillery at his heels ; and he adds, in 

 another place, that his usual gait is from twelve to thirteen 

 miles an hour, but that on being pushed he will readily knock 

 off his eighteen to twenty miles within the same period. 



The author of Eothen speaks of ten to twelve miles an hour 

 as the ordinary jog-trot of the dromedary, and says he can keep 

 it up for three days and nights, without food, water, or repose. 



An Arab chief whom I met in the grain -market at Blidah, 

 gravely informed me that General Yusuf, commander-in-chief 

 of the native forces in Algeria, had repeatedly driven a pair of 

 dromedaries before a wagon from Blidah to Medeah, a distance 

 of twenty-four miles, in half an hour. He explained that the 

 general tied a handkerchief over his mouth, and wore goggles, 

 and had his ears stuffed with cotton-wool, and so got over the 

 road very well. I said nothing by way of comment, but as 

 this dignified chieftain haughtily declined a cigar which I 

 offered him, on the ground of his not using the weed, and I 

 afterwards detected him smoking an old stump which I had 

 thrown away, I came to the conclusion that if he did not ex- 

 actly prevaricate, he might, as a man of business, have added a 

 handsome per centage to the truth. 



The Bedouin who came with me from Africa in charge of my 

 camels, tells me that he has often travelled faster a camel- back 

 than the highest speed yet attained on the Northern IN'ew Jer- 

 sey railroad ; and this I will not gainsay. 



Burden Capacity. 



The special usefulness of the camel is found in his capacity of 

 bearing burdens. The Hebrew word gamal^ which we trans- 



