THE GIRAFFE—CAMEL—BUFFALO 
I 97 
of the young camel is inferior to beef or mutton, but it is savory, and 
not difficult of digestion. The female yields an abundance of milk, 
almost as nutritious and agreeable to the taste as that of the cow. 
The hair makes a wool of coarse quality, but long, tough, stout, and 
easily worked. Out of the skin capital garments, coverings and tents 
are made; the sinews are manufactured into harness, and applied to 
various other purposes. Camel-leather is not inferior in suppleness 
or firmness to that which we use. The dung of the camel, dried in 
the sun, serves as fuel, not only for cooking food, but even for working 
metals. Finally, as we have said, as a beast of burden the camel 
surpasses all other animals in strength, swiftness, and the faculty of 
enduring fatigue; and, more particularly, in that proverbial abste¬ 
miousness which enables it to accomplish a journey of several succes¬ 
sive days without taking either food or drink. 
The camel finds it no hardship to be deprived of water for eight, 
nine or even ten days; and it is said, on what seems good authority, 
that it can even prolong its abstinence for twenty-three or twenty- 
five days. Its daily ration of solid food weighs about a pound or a 
pound and a quarter. When it has started on its journey fasting, 
it frequently obtains no better sustenance on the way than the tops 
of some dry and dirty branches, with a handful of dry beans for its 
evening meal. 
This remarkable power of endurance, however, is not its only 
good quality. If kindly treated, the camel is tractable and patient. Its 
strength is extraordinary, and its swiftness equals that of the ordinary 
horse. It can carry a burden of from six hundred to a thousand 
pounds from thirty to thirty-five miles a day. It must be added that 
it is not an agreeable animal to ride, owing to its rough, awkward, 
swinging gait. 
There are two varieties of camels—the Djemel and the Mahan. 
The former is the beast of burden; the latter is reserved for traveling 
and the chase. 
The Buffalo.— Following the order of the ruminants, we next 
reach the buffalo. It is only necessary to look once at this ugly brute 
to realize his dangerous possibilities. Of all the African animals, not 
even excepting the uncertain tempered rhino, the buffalo must be 
