572 
VERTEBPvATA. 
THE BACTKIAN CAMEL. 
THE CAMELID^. 
This family includes two genera, the Camel and the Lama, both of which are in several re- 
spects very unlike the other members of the order of Ruminantia, and at the same time very un- 
like each other. Both, however, are among the most useful of animals to the inhabitants of the 
countries they inhabit. 
Genus CA]\IEL : Camelus. — Of this there are two species, the Baotrian Camel, C. Bactria- 
nuSj and the Dromedaby, C. Dromedarius ; both, however, are embraced under the general 
name of Camel, which in He'brew is Gamal ; in Arabic, Djemal ; in German, Kameel ; in 
French, Chameau. Their native countries are in the warmer and temperate parts of Asia, but 
not even here are they met with in a wild state ; the whole I'ace appears, indeed, to have been 
from time immemorial under the dominion of man. We trace them in the Scrij)tures from the 
earliest periods, not as wild animals, but as already subject to man's vise, and especially as the 
great instrument of commercial intercourse. Thus, when Joseph's brethren having cast him into 
the pit, and after the commission of their crime sat down to eat bread, "they lifted up their 
eyes and looked, and behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bear- 
ing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt." (Genesis xxxvii. 25.) Again, 
in Judges viii. 21, we read that "Gideon arose and slew Zebah and Zalmunnah, and took away 
the ornaments that Avere on their camels' necks." In Genesis xxxii. we find that Jacob "divi- 
ded the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands ;" 
and the domestic state of the animal at this early period is further proved by verse fifteen of the 
same chapter, where we see, as part of the present sent by Jacob to propitiate Esau, "thirty milch 
camels with their colts." In Leviticus, xi. 4, the camel is enumerated among the forbidden ani- 
mals, " because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof ; he is unclean unto you." Part 
