CAMELS AND LLAMAS 
407 
Various Breeds. 
to the tail. The hump, when the animal is in good condition, stands upright, but it 
alters considerably in shape according to age. The richer the food of the camel, 
the larger is its hump; while, when the food is poor and dry, the hump decreases 
in size; and accordingly in the rainy season this appendage attains its maximum 
development, while in the dry months it proportionately shrinks. In high-con¬ 
ditioned animals, the hump should form a regular pyramid, and occupy at least a 
quarter of the whole length, but when the animals are half-starved it almost dis¬ 
appears. The hair is soft, and on the hinder part of the head, the neck and throat, 
the shoulders, the hump, and the upper part of the fore-legs, is longer than else¬ 
where. The colour of the hair is very variable, although a light sandy is the 
most common hue; there are, however, white, grey, brown, and even totally black 
camels; but those of the last-named colour are held by the Arabs to be worthless. 
There are numerous breeds of camels differing more or less 
from another, and the Arabs recognise no less than twenty distinct 
strains. Roughly speaking, they may, however, be divided into two classes, 
namely, baggage-camels and riding-camels, or dromedaries; and ’Sir Samuel Baker 
observes that there “ is the same difference between a good hygin, or dromedary, 
and a baggage-camel, as between the thoroughbred and the cart-horse; and it 
appears absurd in the eyes of the Arabs that a man of any position should ride a 
baggage-camel. Apart from all ideas of etiquette, the motion of the latter animal 
is quite sufficient warning. Of all species of fatigue, the back-breaking monotonous 
swing of a heavy camel is the worst.” The peculiarly unpleasant motion of even 
the best camels is due to the circumstance that the two legs of one side are moved 
simultaneously. The ordinary pace of a baggage-camel is from two and a half to 
three miles an hour when fully loaded, but a good dromedary will keep up a pace 
of from eight to ten miles an hour for a long period. 
Arabian camels are now found in the domesticated condition in 
all parts of Africa, lying between the Mediterranean and the 12th 
parallel of north latitude, while in Somaliland they extend as far south as the 5th 
parallel. They are also widely distributed in South-Eastern Asia, ranging from the 
lowlands of Afghanistan and Bokhara, where they impinge 011 the habitat of the 
two-humped Bactrian camel, through North-Western India, Persia, Asia Minor, 
Syria, and Arabia. In Asia Minor and Khorasan, there is a race of half-breeds 
between the Arabian and the Bactrian camel; this breed being known in the last- 
named country as the Boghdi camel. According to Elphinstone, it has the two 
humps of the Bactrian species, but the long limbs of the Arabian; and it appears 
to be generally a product of crossing a male of the former with a female of the 
latter. Arabian camels have also been introduced into the Canaries, Australia, 
North America, Italy, the south of Spain, and Zanzibar. 
There has been much discussion as to what country was the original home of 
the Arabian camel; but it has been considered that Arabia has the best title to 
this honour. This conclusion appears to rest partly on the statements of Diodorus 
Siculus and Strabo that wild camels existed in Arabia at the commencement of 
the Christian era, and partly on the circumstance that no representations of camels 
occur in the ancient Egyptian frescoes. Whatever may be the value of the state¬ 
ments referred to, there can be no question but that the absence of pictures of 
Habitat. 
