INTRODUCTION OF CAMELS. 579 
stranger, even in Africa, and when his sphere in Asia was com- 
paratively limited.* Now, his geographical diffusion is equal to 
* «The camel,” says Humboldt, “was entirely unknown to the cultivated 
people of Carthage, through all the centuries of their flourishing existence, 
until the destruction of the city. It was first brought into use for the armies 
by the Marusians, in Western Lybia, in the time of the Cesars; perhaps in 
consequence of its employment in commercial undertakings by the Ptolemies, 
in the valley of the Nile. The Guanches inhabiting the Canary Islands, who 
were probably related to the Berber race, were not acquainted with the camel 
before the fifteenth century, when it was introduced by Norman conquerors 
and settlers. In the probably very limited communication of the Guanches 
with the coast of Africa, the smallness of their boats must necessarily have im- 
peded the transport of large animals. The true Berber race, which was diffused 
throughout the interior of Northern Africa, is probably indebted to the use of 
the camel, throughout the Lybian desert and its oases, not only for the advan- 
tages of internal communication, but also for its escape from complete annihi- 
lation and for the maintenance of its national existence to this day. The use 
of the camel continued, on the other hand, to be unknown to the negro races ; 
and it was only in company with the conquering expeditions and proselyting 
missions of the Bedouins through the whole of Northern Africa, that the useful 
animal of the Nedschd, of the Nabatheans, and of all the districts occupied by 
the Aramean races, spread here, as elsewhere, to the westward. The Goths 
brought the camels as early as the fourth century to the Lower Istros (the Dan- 
ube), and the Ghaznevides transported them in much larger numbers to India 
as far as the banks of the Ganges,* 
Other authorities agree as to the comparatively recent introduction of the 
camel and dromedary into Northern Africa. Baron Humboldt distinguishes 
two epochs in their distribution there, “the first under the Ptolemies, which 
operated, through Cyrene, on the whole of the north-west coast, and the second 
under the Mohammedan epoch of the conquering Arabs; ” + while the dromeda- 
ry, now so much in use, was only propagated in the region of Algiers as late as 
the middle of the sixteenth century. t 
A number of curious facts have been brought together by Mr. Gliddon, to 
show that the camel was not used in the earliest Egyptian times; the most sat- 
isfactory evidence of which is, that it does not appear on any of the Pharaonic 
monuments: a conclusion to which Champollion-Figeac had arrived. “But 
one thing worthy of remark,” says that distinguished archeologist, “is that 
there is not found on any monument the figure or mention of the camel; a 
native of Arabia. This valuable animal appears to have been unknown to the 
ancient Egyptians for service.” § 
* Karl Ritter, Asien, vol. viii., Part 1, p. 610, 757. + Views of Nature, Lond. ed. p. 52. 
{ Bodichon, Etudes sur L’ Algérie et D Afrique, p.62. § Hgypte Ancienne, p. 196. 
