16 
■SCENES IN INDIA. 
noxious qualities, the undisputed possession of cham- 
bers in which princes or warriors once reposed and the 
pomp of nobility prevailed. 
The buffalo may be daily seen bathing its heavy 
limbs in the water that washes the walls of those 
stately ruins ; and the camel-driver leads his beast to 
the brink to release it of its burden beside the cool 
stream, in which it relieves itself with a refrigerating 
draught after a long and painful journey. Though these 
creatures carry in the stomach a provision of water 
sufficient for the consumption of several days, yet they 
are always anxious to exchange their confined store 
for the less heated element of the river or tank. 
" In those caravans of long course,” says Bruce in 
his travels, “ which come from the Niger across the 
Desert of Selima, it is said that each camel, by drink- 
ing, lays in a store of water that will support him for 
forty days. I will by no means be a voucher for the 
truth of this account, which carries with it an air of 
exaggeration ; but fourteen or sixteen days, it is well 
known, an ordinary camel will live, though he hath no 
fresh supply of water. When he chews the cud, or 
when he eats, you constantly see him throw from his 
repository mouthfuls of water to dilute his food ; and 
Nature has contrived this vessel with such properties, 
that the water within never putrifies nor turns un- 
wholesome. It was indeed vapid, but had neither 
taste nor smell.” 
The length of time which Mr. Bruce represents 
camels to live without a fresh supply of water, would 
appear altogether incredible had not the extraordinary 
fact been confirmed by subsequent travellers. When 
