ARABIAN CAMEL. 
157 
wholesome, nourishing, and antiseptic ; but always 
faintly acid in its taste. In the more temperate 
latitudes of Asia and Africa, the hair is of a silky 
fineness,, and sells at a considerable price. It is 
wrought into some valuable stuffs. His skin is 
another article of great value. Camel's dung is 
the only fuel which travellers have to kindle their 
fires of, in the desert. If dry, it kindles instanta- 
neously., and affords a strong heat, and a bright 
ilame. 
No wonder then, that the Arabians have, from 
the earliest ages, assiduously availed themselves of 
the services which this animal is qualified to afford. 
Six thousand camels were part of the immense 
wealth of the patriarch Job. To tend, to train, to 
improve the breed, and to multiply the numbers of 
their camels, is to this day the chief employment of 
many of the Arabians. In tracing the annals of re - 
mote antiquity, we cannot discover the period when 
camels existed only in a wild state-. But so gentle 
an animal would, the instant be became known to 
man, be subjected to his authority. In Egypt, the 
camel has been perhaps as long known and serviceable 
as in Arabia. He is there used chiefly as a beast 
of burden. A loaded camel travels between Cairo 
and Suez, a journey of six and forty hours, without 
needing either food or water. The food on whic 
the Egyptians sustain him. is bruised stones, or 
kernels of dates. The Persians have several ex- 
cellent breeds of camels. Their strongest, which 
they call chotornain, carry a load, a thousand or 
eleven hundred pounds in weight. Those of a 
secondary character, called i Persia, do 'or, in 
Arabia, jenial, and in Indostan, oatt, Ik o* six or 
seven hundred. The feeblest race, m e ed u: Arabic, 
ragahill, carry at least five hundred. W !v >e 
camel-drivers wish their camels to quirt u ir 
pace, they chant to them wild} irreguk. , of 
