THE CAMEL. 



729 



and animals ; here, tbe ship, the camel of the ocean — there, the dromedary, the ship 

 of the desert. 



But for the camel, the desert itself would ever have remained impassable and un- 

 known to man. On it alone depends the existence of the nomadic tribes of the Orient, 

 the whole commercial intercourse of North Africa and South-west Asia, and no wonder 

 that the Bedouin prizes it, along with the fruit-teeming date-palm, as the most precious 

 gift of Allah. Other animals have been formed for the forest, the water, the savan- 

 na ; to be the guide, the carrier, the companion, the purveyor of all man's wants in 

 the desert, is the camel's destiny. Wonderfully has he been shaped for this peculiar 

 life ; formed to endure privations and fatigues under which all but he would sink. On 

 examining the camel's foot, it will at once be seen how well it is adapted for walking 

 on a loose soil, as the full length of its two toes is provided with a broad, expanded, 

 and elastic sole. Thus the camel treads securely and lightly over the unstable sands, 

 while he would either slip or sink on a muddy ground. He can support hunger longer 

 than any other mammiferous animal, and is satisfied with the meanest food. Frugal, 

 like his lord the wiry Bedouin, the grinding power of his teeth and his cartilaginous 

 palate enable him to derive nutriment from the coarsest shrubs, from thorny mimosas 

 and acacias, or even from the stony date-kernels, which his master throws to him after 

 having eaten the sweet flesh in which they are imbedded. 



For many days he can subsist without drinking, as the pouch-like cavities of his 

 stomach — a peculiarity which distinguishes him from all other quadrupeds, perhaps, 

 with the sole exception of the elephant — form a natural cistern or reservoir, whose 

 contents can be forced upwards by muscular contraction to meet the exigencies of the 

 journey. It is frequently believed that this liquid remains constantly limpid and pal- 

 atable, and that in cases of extreme necessity camels are slaughtered to preserve the 

 lives of the thirsty caravan ; but according to Russegger these accounts are fabulous, as, 

 particularly after a long abstinence from drinking, the dromedary's supply is nothing 

 but a most nauseous mixture of putrid water and half-digested food, from which even 

 Tantalus would turn away disgusted. But the " ship of the desert " is not only pro- 

 vided with water for the voyage, but also with liberal stores of fat, which are chiefly 

 accumulated in the hump ; so that this prominence, which gives it so deformed an ap- 

 pearance, is in reality of the highest utility — for should food be scarce, and this is 

 almost always the case while journeying through the desert, internal absorption makes 

 up in some measure for the deficiency, and enables the famished camel to brave for 

 some time longer the fatigues of the naked waste. Yet all mortal endurance has its 

 limits, and even the camel, though so well provided against hunger and thirst, must 

 frequently succumb to the excess of his privations, and the bleached skeletons of the 

 much enduring animal strewed along the road mark at once the path of the caravan 

 and the dreadful sufierings of a desert-journey. 



But even these horrid wastes, where the glowing Khamsin whirls the sands in suflb- 

 cating eddies, have beauties of their own. Particularly when the full moon shines in 

 the dark blue sky, bespangled with constellations of a brilliancy unknown to the 

 northern firmament, when the mountains throw their dark shades far away over the 

 yellow sands, and the picturesque effect of the scene is enhanced by the aspect of the 

 tents, the watch-fires, and the reposing animals ; then we may well conceive how the 

 wandering Bedouin loves the desert no less than the mariner loves the ocean, or the 



