208 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
exhibiting any symptoms of fatigue. Its ordinary 
pace is about two miles and a half an hour. The 
rider sits upon the camel's shoulders, or rather upon 
its hump, and guides it by a thick cord, passed 
through the. fleshy part of its nose, just above the 
cartilage that separates the nostrils. It is generally 
perfectly tractable, and is subservient to the slightest 
motion of the cord by the driver. The camel of India 
has but one hump, and is in fact the dromedary of 
natural history, though it is universally known by 
the generic name of camel throughout the continent of 
Asia. The dromedary, which is really the animal I 
have been describing, has been declared by travellers 
to possess great speed, but this is quite a mistake ; 
its movements are slow and extremely awkward, while 
the roughness of its pace is so distressing to the rider, 
that few of the natives who are daily upon its back 
live long. The camel, notwithstanding, may be said to 
be an expeditious traveller, especially in long journeys ; 
not, however, in consequence of its speed, for in this 
creatures abound, mention as a distinguishing feature of the 
female elephant that, like the wild sow, she has no tusks. Cer- 
tain it is, that, in reading the account of the elephant as gene- 
rally given, the impression would be, that the jaws of the female 
are commonly armed like those of the male. Now this is 
not true, as the former always has tusks when of a certain 
age, the latter not always, — a fact admitted by all naturalists. 
I take the truth to be, that female elephants have tusks, in about 
the same proportion as women have beards. Whether this be 
the case or not, I do not presume to decide against generally re- 
ceived authorities. The representation however in the plate to 
which I have alluded is sufficiently justified from the circum- 
stance, that the animals there given were taken from the life, and 
were exactly as Mr. Daniell has represented them. 
