FOR THE PEOPLE

FOR EDVCATION

FOR SCIENCE

LIBRARY

OF

THE AMERICAN MUSEUM

OF

NATURAL HISTORY

^# f^% ^^cMmdi-c&mr

THE CAMEL

t 9. 7srC

ORGANIZATION HABITS AND USES

CONSIDERED WITH

REFEKENCE TO HIS INTRODUCTION INTO
THE UNITED STATES

GEOEGE P MARSH

BOSTON-
GOULD AND LINCOLN

59 WASHINGTON STREET

NEW YORK: SHELDON, BLAKE MAN & CO

CINCINNATI : GEORGE S BLANCHARD

1856

^ ^ l-V^

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by

GOULD AND LINCOLN,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

RIVERSIDE, Cambridge:

PRINTED BY H. 0. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.

PREFACE

The practicability and expediency of introducing
the camel into the United States having long since en-
gaged my attention as a problem of much economical
interest, I availed myself of the facilities afforded by a
late residence of someyears in the Turkish empire, to
investigate the subject more fully than it had been in
my power to do in this country. Several months of
travel in Egypt, Nubia, Arabia Petrsea and Syria, pre-
sented opportunities for a good deal of personal obser-
vation, and I occasionally saw the Turcoman camel,
and others of northern breeds, employed at different
points in Asia Minor, and sometimes at Constantinople.
I also gathered such information as I was able by in-
quiry and correspondence, and by consulting the books
of travel and natural history to which I had access.
By these means, I arrived at a strong persuasion of the
probable success of a judiciously conducted attempt to
naturalize in the new world this oldest of domestic
quadrupeds, and at the same time I collected most of
the materials which compose the following pages. Since
my return to the United States, I have added to my

6 PREFACE.

previous sources of information R-itter's valuable and
learned essay, Die geographische Verbreitung des
Kameels, in the thirteenth volume of his Erdkunde,
Carbuccia's work on the Dromedary of Algeria, Ham-
mer-Purgstall's erudite paper, Das Kamel, in the sixth
volume of the Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akade-
mie der Wissenschaften in Wien, and some other in-
structive treatises on the same subject. All these I
have used freely, generally referring to chapter or page,
though I may, very probably, have sometimes neglected
to give credit, particularly in stating facts of almost
universal notoriety. To save frequent reference, I re-
mark here, once for all, that the passages embraced in
quotation marks, without reference to the source, are
borrowed from an article entitled " The Desert," in the
ninety-first number of the American Whig Review, or
from an unpublished journal of eastern travel by the
author of that article. I ought also to add, that I have
embodied in this volume the contents of a lecture de-
livered by me at the Smithsonian Institution in the
winter of 1854-5, and printed with one of the Reports
of that Institution.

The results of my own observations have in general
accorded with those of previous inquirers. I have not
the vanity to suppose that I have added anything to
the existing stock of knowledge respecting an animal

PREFACE. 7

which has been an object of enhghtenod curiosity to
naturalists and travellers for^paore than twenty centu-
ries ; and, so far as possible, I have preferred rather to
cite the testimony of well-known writers than to seem
to claim the merit of discovery, by stating, on my own
authority, facts which others had observed before me.
Besides this, it has been agreeable to me thus to bear
witness to the accuracy of observation and fidelity of
description which characterize the writings of Taver-
nier, and Erman, and Bergmann, and Denham, and
Burckhardt, and other votaries and too often victims
of science, whose labors have done so much to facilitate
the researches of later explorers in the same attractive
field of knowledge.

The information which I have thus collected, and
which I now lay before the public, has an important
bearing on a question that the American government is
bringing to a practical test. If the experiment shall
fail, it will be neither because the attempt is in its na-
ture hopeless, nor because the public agent entrusted
with the charge of it, has committed any error in the
execution of his duties, but because the means appro-
priated by Congress did not admit of an experiment on
a scale extensive enough, and varied enough, to em-
brace all the reasonable chances of success. In any
event, the present able Secretary of War, is entitled to

8 PREFACE.

no little credit for the intelligence and zeal with which
he has urged this interesting and important measure ;
and it is earnestly to be hoped, that the national legisla-
ture will not refuse any further appropriation necessary
to give a full and fair trial to a project which promises
so valuable results.

I may be thought perhaps to have unnecessarily
crowded my volume with details and citations, but I
have intended to take a purely practical view of my
subject, and I have therefore sought to condense into
the limits I have prescribed to myself the greatest pos-
sible amount of information, and to fortify my state-
ments by the most reliable authorities. The theme,
if not unimportant, is humble, and I claim no merit but
that of fidelity in presenting the conclusions at which I
have arrived.

THE AUTHOR.

Burlington, Vennont, June 1, 1856.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS . . . .13

CHAPTER II.

ADAPTATION OF THE CAMEL TO CERTAIN LOCAL

CONDITIONS — LITERATURE OF THE SUBJECT . 21

CHAPTER III.

SPECIES AND BREEDS .... .30

10 CONTEXTS.

CHAPTER lY.

GENERAL ANATOMY — THE HUMP — THE HEAD —

THE CALLOSITIES 37

CHAPTER V.

THE FOOT 45

CHAPTER YI.

ANATOMY OF THE STOMACH .... 53

CHAPTER YII.

SIZE — COLOR — DISEASES — TEMPER — LONGEVITY 64

CHAPTER YIII.

USEFUL PRODUCTS OF THE CAMEL ... 74

CHAPTER IX.

DIET, AND POWERS OF ABSTINENCE ... 82

CONTENTS. 11

CHAPTER X.

TRAINING AND TREATMENT 95

CHAPTER XI.

BURDEN AND FURNITURE ... .104

CHAPTER XIT.

SPEED AND GAIT 120

CHAPTER XIII.

THE CARAVAN . 136

CHAPTER XIV

THE CARAVAN, CONTINUED 148

CHAPTER XV.

NUMBERS OF THE CAMEL — ORIENTAL EXAGGERA-
TION 162

12 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XYI.

GEOGRAPHICAL KAXGE OF THE CAMEL . .170

CHAPTER XVII.

INTRODUCTION OF THE CAMEL INTO THE UNITED

STATES 177

CHAPTER XYIII.

MILITARY USES OF THE CAMEL . ^ . .185

APPENDIX A 199

APPENDIX B 202

APPENDIX C 206

APPENDIX D 210

INDEX 219

THE CAMEL

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.

The first command addressed to man by his
Creator, and substantially repeated to the second
great progenitor of our race, not only charged
him to subdue the earth, but gave him dominion
over all terrestrial creatures, whether animate or
inanimate, and thus predicted and prescribed the
subjugation of the entire organic and inorganic
world to human control and human use.

Man has yet by no means consummated this
grand mission. He has, indeed, surveyed the
greater part of his vast domain ; marked the
common boundary of its solid and its fluid sur-
faces, and approximately measured their areas
and determined their relative elevation ; pierced
its superficial strata, and detected the order of
their historical succession ; reduced to their
1

14 THE CAMEL.

primal elements its rocks, its soils, its waters,
and its atmosphere, and even soared above its
canopy of cloud. He has traced, through the
void of space, its movements of rotation, revo-
lution, and translation; resolved the seeming
circles of its attendant satellite into strangely-
tortuous paths of progression ; investigated its
relations of density, attraction, and motion, to
other visible and invisible cosmical orbs ; and
unfolded the laws of those mysterious allied
agencies, heat, light, electricity, and magnetism,
whose sphere of influence seems commensurate
with that of creation. But, notwithstanding
these triumphs, earth is not yet all his own ;
and millions of leagues of her surface still lie
uninhabited, unenjoyed, and unsubdued, yield-
ing neither food, nor clothing, nor shelter to
man, or even to the humbler tribes of animal or
vegetable life, which minister to his other neces-
sities, convenience, or enjoyments.

In like manner, we have studied the biog-
raphy of organic life in its infinitely varied,
and more conspicuous, contemporaneous forms,
and the relations of affinity or dependence be-
tween them ; ti'aced the history of myriads of
species of both plants and animals, which had
ceased to be before the Creator breathed into
our nostrils the breath of life ; and demonstrated
the past and present existence of numerous

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 15

tribes of organic beings, too minute to be indi-
vidually cognizable by any of the unaided senses,
yet largely influencing our own animal economy,
and even composing no unimportant part of the
crust of the solid globe ; but of the vegetables
that clothe and diversify its soil, of the animated
creatures that float in its atmosphere, enliven its
surface, or cleave its waters, comparatively few
have as yet been rendered in any way subser-
vient to human use, fewer still domesticated and
made the permanent and regular denizens of
our fields or companions of our households.

The efforts of civilized man towards the ful-
filment of this great command have been di-
rected almost exclusively to the conquest of the
inorganic creation, by the utilization of minerals,
by contriving methods for availing himself of
the mechanical powers and of natural forces,
simply or in cunning combinations, by cutting
narrow paths for facilitating travel and tran-
sport between distant regions, and by devising
means of traversing with certainty and speed
the trackless and troubled ocean.

The proper ravage smelts no ores, and em-
ploys those metals only which natural processes
have reduced. He binds the blocks of which he
rears his rude temples with no cement of arti-
ficial stone. He drains no swamps, cuts no
roads, excavates no canals, turns no mills by

16 THE CAMEL.

power of water or of wind, and asks from inor-
ganic nature no other gifts than those which
she spontaneously offers, to supply his wants
and multiply his enjoyments.

But the very dawn of social life, in those
stages of human existence which precede all
true civilization, demands, as an indispensable
condition, not the mere usufruct of the sponta-
neous productions of the organic world, but the
complete appropriation and domestication of
many species of both plants and animals. Man
begins by subjugating, and thereby preserving,
those organic forms which are at once best
suited to satisfy his physical wants, and, like
himself, least fitted for a self-sustaining, inde-
pendent existence ; and he is to end by extend-
ing his conquests over the more widely dissimi-
lar, remote, and refractory products of creative
nature. We accordingly owe to our primeval,
untutored ancestors, the discovery, the domesti-
cation, the acclimatization of our cereal grains,
our edible roots, our improved fruits, as well as
the subjugation of our domestic animals ; while
civilized man has scarcely reclaimed a plant of
spontaneous growth, or added a newly tamed
animal to the flocks and herds of the pastoral
ages. Indeed, so remote is the period to which
these noble triumphs of intelligent humanity
over brute and vegetable nature belong, that we

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 17

know not their history or their epochs ; and if
we believe them to be in fact human conquests,
and not rather special birthday gifts from the
hand of the Creator, we must admit that culti-
vation and domestication have so completely
metamorphosed and diversified the forms and
products, and modified the habits, and even, so
to speak, the inborn instincts, of both vegetables
and animals, that but the fewest of our house-
hold beasts and our familiar plants can be cer-
tainly identified with the primitive stock. Most
of these, it is probable, no longer occur in their
wild state and original form ; and it is question-
able whether they are even capable of continued
existence without the fostering care of man.^
In both these great divisions of organic life

A It is not the domestic animals alone, whose existence is
perpetuated by the protective, though often unconscious,
agency of man. In the depths of our northern forests the
voice of the song-bird, or of the smaller quadrupeds, is but
seldom heard. It is in the fields tilled by human husbandry
that they find the most abundant nutriment, and the surest
retreat from bird and beast of prey. The vast flights of the
wild pigeon are found, not in the remote, primitive wood-
lands, but along the borders of the pioneer settlements ; and,
upon our western frontier, it is observed that the deer, the
hare, and other feeble animals multiply for a time after the
coming in of the whites, because the civilized huntsman de-
stroys or scares away the wolf, the great natural enemy of the
weaker quadrupeds, and checks the spread of the prairie
fires, which often surprise their young.

18 THE CAMEL.

there are some species peculiarly suited to the
uses of man as a migratory animal. The bread-
stuffs of the old world, and, in a less degree,
Indian corn,^ our only American cereal, the pulse,

1 The cereal grains of Europe and Asia are by original
constitution, or by long domestication, so thoroughly cosmop-
olite in their organization and habits, that they require no
gradual acclimatization when transferred to new localities ;
and seed wheat grown in the tropics will thrive and ripen on
the borders of the polar circle. Indian corn, on the contrary,
either because it has been more recently reclaimed, or from
some inherent physiological peculiarity, much less readily
accommodates itself to new conditions. With every percep-
tible change of climate a new variety occurs, and it is only
by a slow and gradual process of successive removals that
maize originating in Virginia can be brought to maturity in
New Hampshire. Upon the American continent maize is
cultivated from the sea level to the height of 10,000 feet, and
from the equator to at least 46* N. L. in Europe, to the
height of 3,000 feet (in the Pyrenees) and as far north as
52°. The cultivation of wheat reaches the height of 4,500
feet in Europe, of 10,000 in Peru. It is grown in the vicin-
ity of Frondhjem, in Norway, in Lat. 64^*, while rye some-
times ripens three or four degrees nearer the pole. Witti-
ver, Physicalisclie Geogi^aphie, 510, infers from the German
and Italian names of this grain, Turkisches Korn, grano turco,
that it is of Asiatic origin, but this appellation evidently had
its source in the geographical ignorance which in the Middle
Ages so constantly confounded Turkey with India, India with
America ; and all historical evidence goes to show that maize
is exclusively an American plant. Equally erroneous is the
statement of Burmeister, Geschichte der Schopfung, 23,
that Indian corn was only known upon the western slope of

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 19

the cucurbitaceous plants, and the edible roots
of our gardens, as well as the horse, the dog, the
sheep, the swine, and our barnyard fowls, seem
almost exempted from subjection to climatic
laws. While, therefore, a degree of latitude, a
few hundred feet of elevation, a trifling differ-
ence in soil, or in the amount of atmospheric
humidity, oppose impassable barriers to the dif-
fusion of most wild plants and animals, the
domesticated species I have enumerated follow
man in his widest wanderings, and make his
resting-place their home, whether he dwells on
continent or on island, at the level of the sea or
on the margin of Alpine snows, beneath the
equator or among the frosts of the polar circle.

Others, again, of the domesticated families of
the organic world- seem, like the untamed tribes,
inexorably confined within prescribed geograph-
ical bounds, and incapable of propagation or
growth beyond their original limits ; while
others still, though comparatively independent
of climate and of soil, are nevertheless so spe-
cially fitted to certain conditions of surface, and
to certain modes of human life, to the main-

the Cordilleras and their plateaus. It does not indeed appear
that maize has been found wild in North America ; but the
first discoverers describe it as a plant cultivated along the
whole Atlantic coast, from Massachusetts to the Gulf of Mex-
ico.

20 THE CAMEL.

tenance of which they are themselves indispen-
sable, that even the infidel finds, in these mutual
adaptations, proofs of the existence and benefi-
cent agency of a self-conscious and intelligent
creative power.^

1 See extract from Yohiey, post.

CHAPTER II.

ADAPTATION OF THE CAMEL TO CERTAIN LOCAL CON-
DITIONS LITERATURE OF THE SUBJECT.

Among the animated orofanisms of this latter
class, the camel is, doubtless, the most important
and remarkable. The Ship of the Desert^ has

1 Wilkinson, in his Handbook for Travellers in Egypt,
denies that the Orientals bestow this figurative appellation
upon the camel, and affirms that its European use is founded
on a misapprehension of the meaning of an Arabic term
(mrkb) often applied to the camel, and simply signifying
vehicle, and not properly ship, as it has been translated. But
Sir William Jones uses the phrase in his translations of Arabic
poems, and Langles, in his Notes to Chardin, gives the cor"
responding Arabic words in a form, which admits of none
but the old and well-established acceptation. Besides these
authorities, we may cite Daumas, Mceurs et Coiitumes de
VAlgerie, 358, where another term of the same signification
is given, and a poem in praise of the Desert by the celebrated
Emir, Abd-el-Kader, translated in Daumas, Les Che^augo
du Sahara, 401, in which camels are styled

Vaisseaux lerjers de la ierre,
Plus surs que les vaisseaux,
Car le navire est inconstant.

Ritter indeed, Erdkunde, xiii. 744, adopts Wilkinson's cor-
rection of this supposed error, and remarks, that the Arab,

22 THE CAMEL.

navigated the pathless sand-oceans of the Sahara,
and of Gobi, and thus not only extended the
humanizing influences of commerce and civiliza-
tion alike over the naked and barbarous African
and the fur-clad Siberian savage, but, by dis-
covering the hidden wells of the waste and the
islands of verdure that sun'ound them, has made
permanently habitable vast regions not otherwise
even penetrable by man. The howling wilder-
ness now harbors and nourishes numerous tribes
in more or less advanced stages of culture ; and
the services of that quadruped, on which Re-
bekah journeyed to meet her spouse, and which,
though neglected and despised by the polished
Egyptian, constituted a principal item in the rural
wealth of the father of Joseph, are as indispensa-

familiar as he was with the camel long before he became ac-
quainted with shipping, would much more probably have
reversed the figure and called the ship, the camel of
the sea.

But Hammer-Purgstall, in his most learned essay. Das
Kamel, in the Denlschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der
Wis^enschaften, vi. 70, observes : " The figurative name,
the Ship of the Desert, is known, but not the opposite met-
onymy, by which the ship is represented as the camel of the
wide ocean ivaste ; so too camels are called the clouds of the
desert, and clouds, the camels of the sky" We may therefore
conclude, that Wilkinson's objection to a figure of speech,
which has been long current in all the languages of Europe,
is without any just foundation.

ADAPTATION OF THE CAMEL. 23

ble to these races, as are those of any other
animal to man in any condition of society.

The camel lives and thrives in the tropics;
through almost the whole breadth of the north-
ern temperate zone; and is even met beyond
Lake Baikal in conjunction with the reindeer,
with which, among some of the northern tribes,
he has exchanged offices, the deer serving as a
beast of the saddle, while the camel is employed
only for draught or burden.^ But his appropriate
home is the desert, and it is here alone that he
acquires his true significance and value, his re-
markable powers being the necessary condition
and sole means by which man has in any degree
extended his dominion over the Libyan and the
Arabian wildernesses.

" At the return of the hot season," says the
acute Volney, " every thing dries up, and the
dusty gray earth offers only parched and woody
stems, upon which neither the horse, the ox, nor
even the goat can feed. In this state of things
the desert would become uninhabitable, if nature,
in the gift of the camel, had not bestowed upon
it an animal of a constitution as hardy and as
frugal as the soil is sterile and ungrateful. No
creature exhibits so marked and exclusive an
adaptation to its climate, and it would seem that
an intelligent will had mutually accommodated

24 THE CAMEL.

the conditions of each to those of the other.
Designing the camel to inhabit regions where
he could find but a scanty supply of nourish-
ment, nature has been economical of material
in his whole organization. She has not given
him the fulness of form of the ox, the horse, or
the elephant, but limiting him to the purely in-
dispensable, she has bestowed upon him a small
head, almost without external ears, supported by
a fleshless neck. She has stripped his thighs
and legs of every muscle not essential to their
movements, and has furnished his dry and meagre
body with only the vessels and tendons required
to knit its framework together. She has supplied
him with a powerful jaw to crush the hardest
aliments; but that he might not consume too
much, she has narrowed his stomach and made
him a ruminant. She has cushioned his foot
with a mass of muscle, which, sliding in mud,
and ill adapted for climbing, unfits him for every
soil but a dry, even, and sandy surface, like that
of Arabia. She has condemned him to servi-
tude, by refusing him all means of defence
against his enemies. Possessing neither the horns
of the ox, the hoof of the horse, the tusks of the
elephant, nor the speed of the stag, how can he
resist the attacks^ of the lion, the tiger, or even
the wolf ? Nature, therefore, to save the species
from extirpation, has hidden him in the bosom

ADAPTATION OF THE CAMEL. 25

of boundless deserts, whither no vegetable lux-
uriance attracts the beasts of the chase, and
whence the more voracious animals are banished
by the scarcity of their prey ; and it was not till
the sword of the tyrant had driven out victims
from the habitable earth and chased them into
the wilderness, that the camel became the slave
of man. By his subjection, the most barren of
soils has become a home for a portion of the
human family ; and such is his importance in
the economy of desert life, that his extinction
would involve the destruction of the whole pop-
ulation of those arid regions, of whose nomade
existence he is the indispensable condition."

I shall have occasion hereafter to point out an
error into which Volney has fallen, with respect
to the exclusive adaptation of the foot to a " dry,
even, and sandy surface," but in all other points
his description is as accurate as it is eloquent.

In presence of the improvements of more ad-
vanced society, the camel diminishes in numbers
and finally gives place to animals better suited
to the wants and caprices of higher civilization.
Upon good roads, other beasts of draught and
burden are upon the whole more serviceable, or,
to speak more accurately, more acceptable to
the tastes of cultivated nations ; and the un-
gainly camel shares in the contempt with which
the humble ass, the mule, and even the ox, are

26 THE CAMEL.

regarded by the polished and the proud. Besides
this, both the products and the restraints of
proper agriculture are unfavorable to his full de-
velopment and physical perfection. When the
soil is subjugated and enclosed, and the coarse
herbage and shrubbery of spontaneous growth
are superseded by artificial vegetation, he misses
the pungent and aromatic juices which flavor
the sun-burnt grasses and wild arborescent plants
that form his accustomed and appropriate diet ;
the confinement of hedge, and yard, and stall,
are repugnant to his roving propensities and pre-
judicial to his health, and he is as much out of
place in civilized life as the Bedouin or the Tar-
tar. Hence the attempts to introduce him into
Spain, Italy, and other European countries have
either wholly failed, or met with very indifferent
success ; and though he still abounds in Bessa-
rabia, the Crimea, and aU the southeastern prov-
inces of Russia, yet the rural improvements
which the German colonists have introduced into
those regions have tended to reduce his numbers.
When the wandering Tartar becomes stationary,
encloses his possessions, and converts the desert
steppe into arable ground, his camels retreat be-
fore the horse, the ox, and the sheep, and retire
to the wastes beyond the Don and the Volga.i So

1 Schlatter, Bruclistucke aus Reisen im slid lichen Russ-
land, 1 78-9, observes, that the number of camels among the

ADAPTATION OF THE CAMEL. 27

essentially nomade indeed is the camel in his
habits, that the Arab himself dismisses him as
soon as he acquires a fixed habitation. The
oases of the desert are very frequently without
this animal, and he is not possessed by the Fel-
lahheen of the Sinaitic peninsula, by the in-
habitants of Siwah or the oasis of Jupiter Am-
mon, or by those who cultivate the valleys of
Mount Seir.

Of the primitive races of man, known to an-
cient sacred and profane history, but one, the
Bedouin Arab, has retained unchanged his orig-
inal mode of life, and the camel alone, by those
remarkable properties, which have made hab-
itable by man regions inaccessible to the im-
provements of civilization, has preserved to our
own times that second act in the great drama of
social life, the patriarchal condition. The Arab
in all his changes of faith, heathen, christian,
mussulman, has remained himself immutable ;
and the student of biblical antiquity must thank
the camel for the lively illustrations of scripture

stationary Nogai Tartars on the borders of the Sea of Azof
is continually decreasing ; the breeding of horses and horned
cattle having proved more profitable to the families who
have discarded a roving life. But the Tartars in the North-
ei-n Crimea still breed considerable numbers of these animals,
because the steppes produce coarse grasses and other fodder,
acceptable to the camel, though not yielding suitable nutri-
ment for the horse or the ox.

28 THE CAMEL.

history presented by the camp of the Ishmaelite
sheikh, who is proud of his kindred with the
patient Job, and who boasts himself the lineal
descendant of Ibrahim el Khaleel, or Abraham,
« the friend " of God.

Independently of the observations of travellers,
and the numerous scientific descriptions in books
of Natural History, the European literature be-
longing to our subject is not extensive. The
most comprehensive and satisfactory history of
the animal is that presented by Ritter,in a learned
and laborious essay on the geographical diffusion
of the camel, in the thirteenth volume of his great
Description of the Earth. In this essay. Hitter
has, with his usual conscientious industry, availed
himself of every source of information within his
reach; but has seldom cited Eastern authors.
Baron Hammer-Purgstall has now, with equal
erudition and diligence, treated the subject from
a point of view wholly oriental. He records
the titles of sixteen Arabic works specially de-
voted to the camel, none of which, unfortunately,
exist in any European library, and gives a large
mass of citations from numerous Persian and
other oriental writers in prose and verse, embody-
ing a vast amount of information, and amply
illustrating the importance of this animal in the
social life of all the Asiatic, and more especially
the Semitic races. The published portion of

LITERATURE OF THE SUBJECT. 29

this dissertation fills more than eighty quarto
pages, and will be followed by a philological and
lexicographical appendix, containing the texts of
the Koran and those of the Scriptures referring
to the camel, the proverbs applied to him or
borrowed from his habits and uses, and numerous
poetical descriptions, similes, and the like, drawn
from the whole range of Arabic literature. The
Arabic descriptive words illustrated, explained,
or cited in this part of the paper, amount to nearly
six thousand. The first part appeared in the 6th
volume of the Memoirs of the Imperial Academy
of Science at Vienna, in 1855, and the remainder
is promised for the next volume. The most im-
portant remaining contribution to our knowledge
of the uses of the camel is a volume entitled,
Du Dromadaire comme bete de Somme, et comme
animal de Guerne^ Paris, 1853, by the late Gen.
Carbuccia, which contains much valuable in-
formation, unfortunately intermixed with exag-
gerations that a sounder criticism would have
rejected.

CHAPTER III.

SPECIES AND BREEDS.

Naturalists divide the camel into two species,
the Cainelus dwmedarius, or one-humped camel
of Arabia and Africa, and the Camelus Bac-
triamis, or two-humped camel of northern Asia.^
It has been suspected that the camel of the Sa-
hara is distinct from that of more northern Africa,
which is undoubtedly of the Arabian stock, and

1 These geographical limitations, if not strictly accurate,
are nevertheless sufficiently so for general purposes. Al-
though Host, Efterretninger om Marokos, 270, saw the two-
humped camel at Morocco, and individuals of this species
are sometimes met in Syria, yet it is certain that he
is not bred in Africa, or in the warmer regions of the
Asiatic continent, but properly belongs to northern latitudes.
The one-humped camel has a wider range. He is found
among the Nogai Tartars, the Kirghises, and other inde-
pendent Tartar tribes, and in the highlands of central Asia ;
he seems to bear the cold almost as well as the Bactrian, but
he has in those regions neither the speed nor the powers of
endurance which characterize the dromedary of the African
and Arabian deserts. Although neither species probably
now exists in a wild state, yet there is good reason to believe
that the Bactrian was found wild at no very remote period
in the desert of Gobi, where this variety probably originated.
Humboldt, Ansicliten der Natur, i. 88.

SPECIES AND BREEDS.

31

of comparatively late introduction into that con-
tinent;' but this conjecture does not appear to
be supported

by any direct
historical or
physiological
evidence. The
scientific spe- J
cific designa- i
tion of the \
one-humped
camel is not

well chosen. akabian, or one-tiujiped camel,.

The term dromas, as applied to the camel by the
ancients, was not used to indicate a specific dif-

1 Minutoli thinks he recognizes the head of the camel
among the figures upon an obelisk at Luxor. Upon the walls
of some of the smaller apartments of the great te triple of
Karnac are carved heads, which certainly appear to me to
resemble the camel's head more closely than that of any
other quadruped ; and St. John, Adventures in the Libyan
Desert, Chap. xir. says he found this animal among the
sculptures of the temple at the oasis of Jupiter Ammon.
But recent Egyptologists consider some of these figures to
represent the head of the lion, others that of the giraffe, and
it is certain that no part of the skeleton of the camel has
been met with in the catacombs. Although it appears from
Strabo, that the tribes of the desert anciently employed the
camel in the transport of merchandise between Coptos and
Berenice, as they do now between Cairo and Suez, yet there
is abundant evidence to show that he was not used by the

32" THE CAMEL.

ference. The camelns dromas was, as the ety-
mology of the name indicates, what the proper
dromedary is now, that is, simply a running, or
swift camel, used chiefly or altogether for the
saddle ; and he might be, as he may be still, of
either species, Bactrian or Arabian, though the
term dromedary is seldom merited by or applied
to the former of these races. In fact, any light-
built, easy-paced, and swift-footed camel, of
whatever species or variety, is a dromedary;
though there are certain breeds, in which the
slender head, tall, short body, small hump, clean
limbs, and generally livelier color, which char-
acterize the stock, have become hereditary, just
as similar peculiarities of form are perpetuated
in the thorough-bred hunter and race-horse.^ In

proper Egyptians before the time of the Ptolemies, nor does
he appear to have been known upon the Barbary coast until
a mucli later period. See Ritter's essay, Ueher die geogra-
phisclie Verhreltung des Kameels, Erdkunde xiii.

1 " Some writer, Robinson I think, declares that he could
find no difference between the camel and the dromedary,
except In the price of their hire ; and this opinion is con-
firmed by the experience of many travellers, who, with the
best will in the world, have in vain essayed to coax, jerk,
kick, punch, thwack, and bang their beasts into an amble.
But after all, I believe it is quite certain that, among the
many breeds of the camel, there is one of lighter make, easier
gait, and swifter pace, which is a much less fatiguing and
more expeditious mrkh than the common animal. This Is
the dromedary ; and in sum, any light-built, easy-paced, swift-

SPECIES AND BREEDS. 33

popular phraseology, the term dromedary has
been to a considerable extent applied to designate
a camel with two humps, from an erroneous sup-
position that the swift riding-camel, (deloul, of
the Arabs ; al heiri or maherry of the Sahara ;
haguin or hedjin of the Nubians and Egyptians,)^
was of that species. This mistake, imputed by
Ritter to Olearius, appears to have originated in
a misinterpretation of a passage of Aristotle by
Solinus and Theodore Gaza ; and the error,

footed, and well-trained camel (to wblcli cliaraeteristics you
may, if you please, add these external marks, videlicet, a
slender head, a short body, a small hump, and often a livelier
colour,) may lawfully lay claim to that honorable appellation.
That the proportion of dromedaries is not large, you may
learn from an Arabian adage, which you shall find Latinized
in learned Bochart, his Hierozoicon, after this wise : Homines
sunt at Cameli, quorum ne quidam ceniesimus quisque est
Dromas. — Men be as Camels, whereof not one in the
hundred is a Dromedary." The Desert, American Whig
Review, No. xci.

' I have given these names in the orthography commonly
used, though certainly to some extent incorrectly, by trav-
ellers. Hammer-Purgstall, uU supra, 44, thinks deloul a
mere local or corrupted name for the dromedary, but as
Burckhardt heard it in Arabia, Seelzen in the Hauran, and
Layard in Mesopotamia, it is at least of wide application.
Al heiri, or maherry, the North- African name of the drome-
dary, is spelled, more properly no doubt, mliari or mahari
by the French writers on Algeria, and Hammer-Purgstall
corrects haguin, or hedjin, by writing the word hddschm
(Jiajeen), or hedschdn (Jiej'dn).

34 THE CAMEL.

though exposed and corrected by Gessner, three
hundred years ago, and by almost every natural-
ist who has since described the animal, continues
to influence the language, and mislead the pop-
ular opinion, of the nineteenth century.^

Each of the two species comprehends nu-
merous varieties ; but they do not differ from each
other in size, in form, or in speed, more widely
than the breeds of the common horse. Indeed,
the anatomical differences between the Arabian
and the Bactrian camel are so slight, that some
naturalists have maintained their specific iden-
tity ; and it appears to be certain that the com-

1 It Is remarkable, that the accurate Burckhardt should
have fallen into this mistake in speaking of the Bactrian
camel, which he calls the dromedary^ Notes on the Bedouins
and Syria, 637 ; though in his Travels in Nubia, 214, he
properly applies the terra to the swift riding-camel of the
Berbers. Similar and scarcely less remarkable instances of
the tenacity of error, even when almost contemporaneously
exposed, may be found in the never-ending repetitions of
fho. old fable of the Malstrom, which, in the middle of the
nineteenth century, is described by Mr. Somerville, as " a
whirlpool a mile and a quarter in diameter ! " of Pentland's
erroneous measurement of the peaks of the Bolivian Andes ;
and of old Hugh Peters's romance of the compression of the
water at Bellows Falls, on the Connecticut. This last fiction
seems to have found special favor in Germany, where it is
sanctioned by the authority of Otto Berghaus and Wittwer,
all of whom assert that one cannot thrust a crowbar into the
water !

SPECIES AND BREEDS. 35

mon physiological test of specific difference,
the incapacity, namely, of the cross to propagate,
does not hold good as applied to this animal.^
The skeletons of the two species are distinguish-
able, if at all, only by a slight difference of pro-
portion ; and the visceral structure being sub-
stantially the same in both,^ the only foundation
for a specific distinction appears to be in the
number of humps. In the living animal, the
species are readily distinguished by this outward
peculiarity ; and besides this obvious difference,
the Bactrian is shorter limbed and much more
hairy than the Arabian camel. Some writers
describe the Bactrian as upon the whole smaller
and weaker than the Arabian ; but as others
state the contrary, the difference in this respect
is probably not great. It seems well settled that
in countries where the two species exist together,
the cross, though inferior to the dromedary in
speed, is found to be a more powerful, and for
general purposes, a more serviceable animal than
either of the unmixed races, as possessing in a
good degree the most valuable properties of
both.3

i Ritter, Erdkunde, xiii. G59.

2 The stomach of the Arabian camel as described by Jack-
son, (see chapter vi. 2)0st^) appears to differ considerably
from that of the Bactrian dissected by Sir Everard Home.

3 See a valuable paper, extracted from the notes of Gen-

36 THE CAMEL.

eral Harlan, in the Report of the American Patent Office
for 1853, Agriculture, p. 61. General Harlan's testimony
in favor of the strength and power of endurance of the
mixed breed is exceedingly strong ; but he appears to under-
value the pure Bactrian, which is certainly found extremely
serviceable in European and Asiatic Kussia, both for draught
and burden, and in those countries, at least, is almost wholly
exempt from disease. Frsiser, Khorasan, 273. Burckhardt,
Notes on the Bedouins, 110, 111, speaks of the common
camel of Asia Minor as bred between a Crimean (Bactrian)
stud and an Arab female, and states that the Bactrian male
is regularly imported from the Crimea and exclusively kept
for that purpose. If, on the contrary, the dam of the mule
is a Bactrian, the progeny is weak and poor, while the off-
spring of the cross is vicious and intractable. The cross be-
tween the Bactrian and the mule he describes as handsome
but small, and with two small humps, one of which is cut off
at birth to fit the animal for bearing burdens. Burckhardt's
information on these points appears to have been derived at
second hand, and not from personal observation. Notwith-
standing the general extreme accuracy of this great traveller,
and his caution in adopting hearsay testimony, I cannot
but think he is mistaken, with respect to the extent to which
the hybrid between the two species is found in Asia Minor,
though it is undoubtedly very common in more eastwardly
regions. Travellers generally have not observed the Bactrian
in any part of the Turkish empire, nor am I aware of any
reliable authority for the practice of amputating one of the
humps. Although, therefore, the Bactrian may have been
formerly imported into Asia Minor as a breeder, I do not
think he is now found, except in rare cases, in that country ;
and the hybrids, if any such exist there, are probably brought
from Bokhara or the Persian provinces.

CHAPTER IV.

GENERAL ANATOMY — THE HUMP — THE HEAD, AND THE
CALLOSITIES.

The general anatomy of the camel is the
same as that of other ruminants ; but the hump,
the horizontal posture of the head, the direction
of the eye, the power of closing the nostril, the
callosities upon the breast and legs, the spread-
ing and cushioned feet, and above all the curi-
ous structure of the stomach, to which he owes
his most valuable property, the power of long
abstinence from water, distinguish him from all
other quadrupeds.

The following account of his general anatom-
ical structure is abridged from the English Cy-
clopaedia, Natural History, vol. i.

" The camels have thirty-four teeth ; sixteen
in the upper jaw ; namely, two incisors — for the
camels and the llamas have these, and form the
exceptions, the other ruminants being without
any incisors in the upper jaw — two canines,
twelve molars ; eighteen in the lower jaw, name-
ly, six incisors, two canines, and ten molars.

38 THE CAMEL.

There is another difference between the camels
and other ruminants ; the former have the sca-
phoid and cuboid bones of the tarsus separated.
Instead of the great horny case, or shoe, which
envelops all the lower part of each toe, and de-
termines the figure of the ordinary cloven hoof,
the camels have only a small one, or rather the
rudiment of one, adhering only to the last joint
of the toe, and symmetrical in form, like the
hoofs of the Pachydermata, These and other
peculiarities of form lead to the opinion that the
camels and the llamas form the link between the
Riimmantia and the Pachydermata^

" The characters of the genus may be thus
summed up : Lower incisors in the form of
cutting wedges ; upper incisors sub-lateral ;
canines conical, sub-erect, strong ; false molars
situated in the interdentary space on either side ;
head long; upper lip cleft; nostrils slit obliquely;
eyes prominent ; ears small ; neck elongated ;
back with fleshy bosses or hunches ; tail moder-
ate ; toes united below ; teats ventral, four in
number ; hair inclining to woolly ; callosities on
the breast and flexible points of the extremities ;
the upper lip of the camel swollen, and divided.
The projecting orbits of its eyes, the lengthened
and certainly not graceful neck, the back bossed
with a hump or humps, and croup comparatively
weak, supported on the long and awkward look-

THE HUMP.

39

ing legs terminating in apparently dispropor-
tio'lied feet, are not materials for producing
elegance of form; and indeed the air of the
animal is altogether grotesque; but this uncouth
shape is one of those admirable examples of
contrivance, which must strike the most careless

observer."

The hump is simply a fleshy or rather tatty
protuberance upon the back, like that of the
bison, unsupported by any special bony process,
and it is least developed in the highest bred ani-
mals, so that the mahari of the Sahara is popu-
larly described as being without that appendage.
The fulness of the protuberance, however, de-
pends much upon the condition of the animal.
The state of the hump is a test constantly re-
ferred to in the sale or hire of the camel, and
the jockeys resort to various contrivances to give
it an unnatural plumpness and solidity.^ When
the camel has been, for a length of time, full
fed, and subjected to moderate labor only, the
hump assumes a greater plumpness of form and
hardness of texture ; but if ill kept or overworked,
the fat of the hump is absorbed, the protuber-
ance becomes flaccid, and it is sometimes even
reduced to little more than its skin. It undoubt-

1 The camel-dealers perforate the skin, and blow up the
hump of the living animal, as dishonest butchers do their
meat, to make it look full. Tavernier, i. 132.

40 THE CAMEL.

edly serves as a repository of nutriment, and
the absorption of its substance into the general
system appears to be one of the special arrange-
ments by which the camel is so admirably fitted
for the life of privation to which he is destined.

According to Burckhardt,^ when the ani-
mal is in the best possible case, in which
condition he is only found among the richer
nomade Arabs, and even there but rarely, the
hump is of a pyramidal shape, covers nearly the
whole back, and its length is not less than one
fourth of that of the entire body. Of all the
members it is last exhausted and last fattened.
In long journeys it slowly wastes away, and a
repose of three or four months is required to
restore it to its full volume. The Arabic lan-
guage has at least thirty words descriptive of
the conditions of the hump, with reference to its
dimensions, its fatness or leanness, its solidity or
flaccidity, and the causes of all these different
states of this important appendage.

The head of the camel, especially of those of
the Bishari and Ababdeh breeds, is carried high
and nearly horizontal; and this circumstance,
with the length and curvature of the neck, and
the outline of the arched back, create between
the camel and the ostrich a resemblance strong

1 Bedouins, 264.

THE HEAD. 41

enough abundantly to justify the name oistnithiO'
camelus, which the Roman naturalists, and that
of camel-bird, which, according to Niebuhr, the
Arabs ajDply to that gigantic fowl.^ But notwith-
standing this horizontal bearing of the brow and
front, the camel is but an apparent exception to
the limitation which permits man alone ccelum tu-
eri. For though he seems erectos ad sidera tollere
vultus, the structure of the skull and the position
of the eye forbid an upward glance. The eye is
projecting, sheltered above by a salient bony
arch, and its axis is nearly parallel to that of the
head, though with a slight inclination towards
it anteriorly. From this conformation of the
organ, the sight of the animal is habitually di-
rected rather downwards than forward, to the
ground upon which he is just about to tread
than to the distance. It is, in a great degree, to
this structure, as I believe, that his remarkable
sure-footedness is to be attributed. The eye
always scans the surface where the foot is next
to be placed ; and in moving about among the
scattered luggage and furniture of a camp, he

1 " The ostrich himself seems to have a dim consciousness
that he is a sort of equivocal middle-thing between a volatile
and a quadruped, for when they said to him, fly ! he answered,
' I cannot, I am a camel ;' when they said, carry ! he replied,
' I cannot, I am a bird.' "

From the unpublished Journal of a Traveller in the East.

42 THE CAMEL. •

rarely treads on the smallest article. The nos-
trils are fringed with long hairs, and provided
with sphincters, which enable the animal to
close them, and thus to exclude insects and the
sand with which the desert winds are so often
charged, while the hairs, to a considerable ex-
tent, perform the same office during the occa-
sional partial opening of the apertures, required
for respiration. The Bedouins understand the
value of a wide nostril as well as a Newmarket
jockey, and they frequently slit the nose of the
animal in such a way as to give each aperture
the form of a Y. The slitting of the nostrils
is a common preparation for a race ; and I once
saw this absm'd operation performed upon a
dozen young dromedaries, which were to con-
tend for the prize on the following day.

The camel is provided with seven callosities,
which receive the shock of his fall in lying down
for repose, or at the command of his master for
the convenience of mounting and dismounting,
loading and unloading, and the weight of the
body is supported by them when at rest. One
of these is upon the breast nearly between the
fore legs, two upon each of the fore and one
upon each of the hinder legs. The callosities
upon the breast and at the knees are evidently
organic, as they consist of a horny substance
and are found in the foetus. The others appear

THE CALLOSITIES. 43

to be a mere thickening of the skin, and they
may be the effect of friction and pressure. The
full development of the callosities is one of the
" points " of a good mahari, and it ought to be
accompanied with a slender barrel, so that in the
recumbent postm'e the belly shall scarcely touch
the gi'ound.

In lying down the animal throws himself
slightly forward, and first bending one fore leg,
poises himself for an instant, and then falls sud-
denly upon the callosities at the knees ; he now
advances the hind feet a little, and drops upon
the gambrel joint ; the callus upon the breast is
brought to the ground by a third descent, and
those upon the upper and forward part of the
hind leg by a fourth. Each of these movements,
(which are reversed in rising,) and especially the
first, is attended with a considerable shock ; and
the inexperienced rider is apt to be thrown over
the camel's head, unless he steadies himself by
holding fast to the saddle pins. The Arabs slide
down from and climb up to the saddle, without
making the animal kneel, or even stopping him,
and any active man may readily learn to do the
same, but Europeans seldom practise this meth-
od.i The French soldiers in Algeria use a long

1 Burckbardt, S7jria^ 445, remarks, that it tires the camel
to lie down and rise again, and be advises tbe traveller to
acquire tbe babit of mounting and dismounting wbile bis

44 THE CAMEL.

stirrup with two steps to mount by ; and a loop
upon a lance, such as were used by some ancient
mounted troops, or attached to a musket, might
answer the same purpose.

beast is standing. The Arabs often manifest impatience,
when a traveller makes his camel kneel too frequently.

CHAPTER V.

THE FOOT.

The foot of the camel is equally adapted to
treading upon yielding sand and to climbing the
rugged rock, which, in all extensive deserts, forms
a much larger proportion of the surface than ac-
cumulations of sand. The surface of the wil-
derness is in general a hard, compact, gravelly
soil, or composed of loose stones, or bare rocks,
furrowed by deep and abrupt ravines ; and most
known deserts are apparently of submarine for-
mation.

The foot is composed of two long toes united
by and resting upon an elastic cushion with a
tough and horny sole or facing. The foot spreads
upon touching the ground somewhat like that
of the moose and reindeer, and affords a broader
support to the weight of the animal than almost
any other quadruped is provided with. The
camel, therefore, sinks less in the sand than any
other large animal ; but he nevertheless instinc-
tively avoids it, as a horse does a puddle, and
prefers any other surface except mud, loose roll-
ing pebbles, and sharp-pointed rocks. Burck-
3

46 THE CAMEL.

hardt ^ observes : " It is an erroneous opinion,
that the camel delights in sandy ground. It
is true, that he crosses it with less difficulty
than any other animal, but wherever the sands
are deep, the weight of himself and his load
makes his feet sink into them at every step, and
he groans and often sinks under his burden."
Denham and Clapperton say their camels some-
times sank almost knee-deep in the loose sand,
and that, in descending steep sand-hills, they
were so helpless as to require their drivers to sup-
port them and keep them from falling forwards
by holding them back by the tail.^

The sole, though of a horny texture, is suffi-
ciently yielding to allow the cushion of the foot
to accommodate itself to the inequalities of a
rocky surface,^ and the camel climbs with facility
ascents so steep and rugged, or even so slippery,
as to be scaled with difficulty by any other
domestic animal. The limestone ledges in the
northern portion of the lesser Arabian peninsula

1 Syria, 622.

2 Denham and Clapperton's Travels, i. chap. 3, do. p. 169.
Pietro della Yalle complains that his camel, though the
freshest and strongest in the caravan, fell in the soft sand
" more than seven times in one day."

3 The sole seems entirely impenetrable to thorns, and the
camel treads with impunity on the strong sharp spines with
which the fallen branches of the desert acacias are thickly
armed.

THE FOOT. 47

are often worn to a glassy smoothness by primi-
tive water currents, or by the attrition of the
desert sands, yet the camel traverses them in all
directions with entire secmity. Observing a
caravan climb a long ascent of this description
in Arabia Petrsea, I had the curiosity to measure
the inclination of the rock, and found the angle
with the horizon to be fifteen degrees. The
surface was everywhere almost as slippery as
polished marble, and the length of the slope
exceeded half a mile ; but the whole caravan of
more than fifty camels surmounted it without
any accident. The northern slope of the pass
of Negabad, on the eastern arm of the Red Sea,
appears to me even steeper than that I have just
described, and the path is as rugged and the zig-
zags as short as those of almost any of the mule
routes over the Alps, but it is constantly crossed
by loaded caravans without difficulty. But these
are trifles compared with the performances of
camels in Algeria, as stated by the French offi-
cers. According to an official report to the war
department of France in 1844, in the expedition
to Milianeh, camels carrying burdens of 250
kilogrammes (550 pounds) climbed without ac-
cident slopes rising at an angle of forty-five de-
grees, and readily traversed every route practica-
ble by mules.i

1 Carbuccia, Du Dromadaire, pp. 8, 169.

48 THE CAMEL.

Although the Arabian camel traverses the
roughest routes and climbs exceedingly steep
ascents, yet the Bactrian and the cross between
the two species are even better fitted for scaling
difficult mountain passes. This difference is,
probably, partly due to habit and training ; but
the greater elongation of the toe of these breeds,
which sometimes projects beyond the cushioned
sole and forms a sort of claw, undoubtedly some-
what facilitates climbing by giving a grasp to
the foot-hold, for which reason the Bactrian an-
ciently was, and sometimes still is, called the
mountain camel.

My Russian correspondents, to whom I have
so often referred, say that the Bactrian is chiefly
used for winter transportation, and that his feet
require no protection, but, to use their own words,
are so formed that he travels well not only on
frozen ground, but upon ice and snow.^ Tim-
kowski saw caravans of this breed cross a glacier ;
and Bergmann says that, in winter, the Calmucks
prefer them to horses for the saddle, because
their long legs enable them to wade through

1 Carbuccia, p. 10, speaks of tlie use of leather shoes to
protect the foot of the camel on rocky ground, and it appears
from Hammer-Purgstall's Essay, p. 30, that wrappages of
leather are applied to the foot in Arabia as a defence against
the cold, which would otherwise crack or split the horny
Bole.

THE FOOT. 49

deeper snows. General Harlan conducted a train
of two thousand camels of the mixed breed
a distance of three hundred and sixty miles,
" over the snow-clad summits of the Indian
Caucasus," in winter, with the loss of but a sin-
gle camel, and even that one was killed by an
accident unconnected with disease or fatigue,
though the campaign lasted seven months.

The structure of the foot gives the animal a
peculiarly silent tread. The thunder which at a
distance announces the approach of a troop of
cavalry, does not herald the advance of a cara-
van ; and with high-bred maharis, whose voice
does not betray the march of a foraging party,
the Bedouin may surprise the most watchful
enemy.

In mud, the footing of the camel is insecure.
The hind legs are little separated down to the
gambrel joint, but from this point they diverge
at a considerable angle, so that an ancient Ara-
bic poem compares the hinder feet to two water-
buckets borne upon a yoke, and the increased
breadth of base thus acquired contributes much
to the sure-footedness of the camel on dry
ground.

Upon a wet and slippery soil, on the contrary,
the liability of the foot to slide is increased by
this arrangement ; and in case of such an acci-
dent, as the foot usually slides laterally, the hip

50 THE CAMEL.

joint is often dislocated or so badly wrenched
that the animal is unable to rise with his burden
and proceed upon his journey.^ It is commonly
said that the camel never rises after falUng under
his load, and that he immediately perishes under
such circumstances. I have myself witnessed
instances to the contrary, although I have no
doubt that when the fall is from exhaustion^ the
death of the animal is nearly certain. Where
the mud is merely a thin layer of wet earth over
a rocky or other very hard surface, the camel

1 According to General Harlan, the hind legs are some-
times hoppled above the gambrel joint to prevent their
spreading on wet ground. " But as touching this matter of
security I must put in a caveat. I will be responsible for the
sure-footedness of the camel on dry soils only ; for if there
be mud, water running or stagnant, or even if the ground
be damp enough to run a western steamboat, travellers agree
that the Arabian camel is very apt to come down unhand-
somely ; his forefoot slipping and wringing his withers, or his
hind legs spreading and dislocating, or sorely wrenching his
hip joints. Tavernier says the same thing even of the Tur-
corman camel, accustomed as he is to rain and snow ; and
goes so far as to affirm that the drivers spread carpets over
wet places for their beasts to tread upon. I have often seen
camels slip, but never fall, in the mud ; and I have not ob-
served that they were particularly shy of wet, as some au-
thors declare. On the contrary, in passing along the beach
of the Red Sea, in the Gulf of Akaba, my dromedary fairly
took to the water, and I had to use some very energetic per-
suasives to induce him to return to terra Jirma." The
Desert.

THE FOOT. 51

passes over it without much risk ; and I have
repeatedly seen caravans travel at their ordinary
pace and with entire confidence and security
over pavements covered with several inches of
snow and soft mud.

The camel readily fords rivers with gravelly
or pebbly bottoms. Tavernier remarks, that be-
tween Alexandretta and Baias, where the road
runs along the sea-shore, the camels are obliged
in many places to pass through the water around
projecting points, and I have seen them wade
around headlands in the Red Sea, in water three
or four feet deep ; but the passage of streams
with soft bottoms, or with deep water, by camels,
is always a matter of some difficulty. It is
not easy to train them to enter a ferry-boat, or to
lie quietly in crossing rivers by this mode of con-
veyance ; and though they float readily, yet they
are bad swimmers, the roundness of the barrel
and the height of the head and hump above the
line of flotation exposing them constantly to the
danger of losing their balance and rolling over
upon the side, in which case they are sure to be
lost. For this reason it is common to lash the
head to the gunwale of a boat, or to support it
by some other contrivance in crossing deep wa-
ters. Denham and Clapperton saw them guided
in crossing rivers, by a man swimming before
them and holding the halter in his teeth, and

52 THE CAMEL.

they observe that the camel of the Sahara is
often seized with illness after swimming, and
dies in a few hours. Lyon says their drivers
hold up their heads in the water by the upper
lip, and that sometimes a man sits behind the
hump, to depress the croup, and elevate the head.
Burckhardt mentions the practice of tying in-
flated goat-skins to their necks to aid them in
swimming.

But although Father Hue, whose lively imag-
ination serves to magnify all things, encountered
almost insurmountable difficulties in crossing
streams with Tartar camels, it appears that the
Bactrian finds the frigid and bridgeless rivers of
Siberia no very serious obstacles to his progress.

Pallas saw Bactrian camels used " as leaders,"
in the conveyance of the post and of travellers
through half-frozen morasses near Lake Baikal,
and he observes that they ford the most rapid
torrents. An older traveller, Yobrand Ides, de-
scribes them as loth to enter a torrent, but says,
that if they are swept off their legs by the vio-
lence of the current, " no creature swims more
easily." It appears, however, by his account,
that it is rather floating than swimming, for he
states that the animal makes little voluntary
effort, and his movements are wholly directed
by his driver, who swims before and guides the
train by the halter.

CHAPTER VI.

ANATOMY OF THE STOMACH.

The most interesting and important anatomi-
cal peculiarity of the camel is that cmioiis struc-
ture by which he is enabled to take in at once,
and by a special aiTangement retain, a sufficient
quantity of water to supply the wants of the
animal economy for several days. It was con-
jectured by Cuvier, and it is believed by some
more recent naturalists, that the stomach of the
camel is not only able to retain for many days
water swallowed by the animal, but that it pos-
sesses the further power of secreting a special
fluid for moistening the fauces and viscera, and
mingling with the food in rumination, in some
such way as some fish are able to keep the skin
moist for some time after they are taken from
the water, by the exudation of a fluid secreted
for that purpose. It is even said that the fluid
found in the water-sac, after the death of the
camel, possesses chemical properties which prove
it to be an animal secretion ; but it does not ap-

54 THE CAMEL.

pear that this fact has been established to the
satisfaction of the physiological chemist.^

It is not easy to explain the structure of the
stomach without drawings, but the following
clear and detailed account of the anatomy of
that organ in the Arabian camel, from a paper
by Dr. Jackson, in the fourth volume of the Bos-
ton Journal of Natural History, will prove intel-
ligible to all, and especially interesting to physi-
ological inquirers. Dr. Jackson dissected both
the male and female of this species, and noticed
some remarkable deviations from the structure
of the stomach of the Bactiian, as represented
by Sir Everard Home. I give Sir E. Home's
somewhat confused description in an appendix
to this volume, for the purpose of comparison.

" The stomach of the female consisted of three
cavities. The first, or the paunch., was of a
rounded form, about two or two and a half feet
in diameter, and nearly filled with food, which
was unchanged and for the most part dryish,
though in the depending parts there was a little
water. The inner surface was formed by a
white, thin, dense, wrinkled cutis without papil-
lae, and lined by a delicate cuticle. The muscular
coat was strongly developed, the fibres generally
extending from the cardiac orifice to the opposite
extremity of the organ, so as to force up the con-

^ Carbuccia, p. 16.

ANATOMY OF THE STOMACH. 55

tents towards the oesophagus in the process of ru-
mination, the cud being evidently returned into
the mouth from this cavity, and not from the
second, as in the bullock ; there was also a thin
layer passing in an opposite direction, besides
some irregular fibres which would give a rota-
tory movement to the contents. The most effi-
cient muscular power, however, was a large thick
band in the posterior parietes ; it was eighteen
inches in length, arose near the cardiac orifice,
around which it communicated with the small
band which went to the second cavity, and was
at this part six inches broad ; at the thickest part,
midway, it was an inch and a quarter in width,
and at the further extremity it became broader,
thinner, and was gradually lost in the parietes."
" The cells in the first cavity, which serve the
animal as a reservoir for water, were arranged in
two rows. The first extended fifteen inches from
the orifice of the second cavity, along the posterior
parietes, towards the left side. Ten transverse
and parallel septa were sent off at a right angle
from the strong muscular band, varying in length
from five to nine inches, and in depth from three
fourths to more than two inches, but becoming
less and less marked towards the left side, where
they gradually disappear. These septa are in-
tersected by others which are thinner, for the
most part quite regular, and situated about one

56 THE CAMEL.

inch apart, thus forming the cells which, by esti-
mate, would hold generally from one to four
ounces ; at the left extremity, where these last
septa are most deficient, the cells are very large,
one of them measuring five and a half by two
inches, and being capable of holding not far
from three or four gills. The first-named trans-
verse septa are from two to four lines thick
on their free edge, in which are seen well-
developed muscular fibres arising directly from
the large band in the posterior parietes of the
organ, though less strongly marked than they are
represented by Sir E. Home ; his figure, however,
was taken from the two-humped camel and not
from the dromedary; the cells, also, are sur-
rounded by a few irregular fibres, which would
tend to expel their contents. In order to see the
fibres in any part of this cavity, the cutis had
to be dissected away. The second row of cells
commenced about opposite the middle of the
first row on the right side, and extended thirty-
four inches round towards the front of the organ.
There were nine transverse septa, from three to
five inches in length, quite regular at the anterior
extremity, but much less so posteriorly ; the
largest were two and a half inches apart. Mid-
way they formed large continuous cells, capable
of holding eight ounces or more ; anteriorly, they
were intersected by other septa, forming very

ANATOMY OF THE STOMACH. 57

regular cells, which would have held from two
to four ounces, but posteriorly the cells were very
irregular, holding about two ounces."

" The second cavity of the stomach, which
must serve merely as a receptacle for water, had
a crescentic form, the small curvature measuring
seven inches, and the large, fifteen. It com-
municated very freely with the first cavity at the
distance of four and one-half inches from the
oesophagus : the opening into the third cavity is
smaller, and immediately below this it formed a
cul-de-sac which was two inches deep ; midway,
it measured, transversely, on the inner surface,
nine and a half inches. In the small curvature
there was a smooth space, four inches wide at
the left extremity, but diminishing to one inch
at the right. Along this space there ran a
strongly marked muscular band ; it arose on the
left side of the termination of the oesophagus,
measured there one inch wide, but gradually di-
minished and terminated at the opening of the
second cavity into the thu'd. Thus the opening
of the third cavity is drawn up towards that of
the oesophagus to receive the cud that has been
chewed, and which is prevented from falling
again into the first cavity by the united action
of the large muscular band in the first cavity,
and the small one in the second. The cells of
this cavity were much more numerous, and very

58 THE CAMEL.

much smaller than those of the first, with which
they were almost directly continuous ; on an
average they would have held from three to four
drams, but the largest, which was situated at the
left extremity, were from two to fom- times as
large. There were thirteen transverse septa,
counting them on the large curvature, but some
of these bifurcated and some united towards
their extremities. These were intersected by two
others, four or five inches long and one fourth of
an inch wide, which arose from the left extremity
of the cavity, ran parallel along the large curva-
ture and were gradually lost ; they were also
intersected by very numerous, short, but not con-
tinuous septa, which formed the cells. This
cavity, like the first, was lined by cutis, without
papillsB; cuticle not raised. Muscular coat
about two lines thick ; fibres mostly longitudinal,
though some were transverse ; the same struc-
ture was also seen about the cells and in the
septa."

" The third cavity, or true organ of digestion,
was for the most part thin and membranous, of
an elongated form, but somewhat incurvated,
and measured three and a half feet in length.
Being cut open, it measured three inches across
at the left extremity, fourteen inches at the
largest part, or about the junction of the first
and second thirds, eight inches where it became

ANATOMY OF THE STOMACH. 59

contracted, or at the distance of six inches from
the pylorus, after which it dilated to twelve
inches, and then contracted again at the pylorus,
to four and a half inches. This cavity at the
left extremity was of about a uniform size
throughout the first five inches, but there was
not the slightest appearance of a separate cavity
as generally described, and as is strongly repre-
sented by Home in the Bactrian camel ; other-
wise the form of this third cavity corresponded
perfectly with his figure. He remarks upon the
intermediate cavity as so small that it might
be overlooked, were it not for the distinctness of
its orifices ; but this last was not found in either
of the individuals under description. He remarks,
also, upon the absence of septa and of the cuticle
which generally characterize the third cavity of
ruminants, and which absence, in the present
case, seemed to be a strong additional reason
for denying the existence of an intermediate
cavity. The mucous membrane generally was
smooth, soft, extremely thin, and thrown into
loose longitudinal folds, of which there were
counted about forty, commencing towards the
left extremity, where the dilatation began, and
terminating within six inches of the pylorus ; in
it were some small mucous follicles. Upon the
inner surface of that portion of the left extrem-
ity which is generally described as an additional

60 THE CAMEL.

cavity, were seen the faint remains of cells, which
passed imperceptibly into the plicas. Sir E. Home
remarks, upon " a faint appearance of a honey-
combed structure, so slight as to require a close
inspection to ascertain it." In the last six inches
of the pyloric portion, the structure of the lining
membrane was entirely changed. The greater
part had the soft villous appearance of mucous
coat, but was much thickened. The remainder,
situated in the large curvature, and to the extent
of about six inches square, was about one line in
thickness, and very peculiar in structure, consist-
ing of fine, upright, parallel fibres, easily separated
from each other, and from the subjacent parts ;
the surface was smoother than that of the sm*-
rounding mucous coat, though thrown into very
thick and strongly marked rugae. Just at the
pylorus was the glandular body, as it is described
in the camel and bullock by Home ; it was about
one inch broad, and about one half inch thick,
from which place it extended backwards along
the small curvature, and was gradually lost in
the parietes ; it was covered by mucous mem-
brane, and consisted of a soft, white tissue, with-
out any glandular appearance. The pylorus
was well marked, though not very prominent.
The muscular coat of this cavity was quite thick,
especially at the rugous part, the fibres being
transverse."

ANATOMY OF THE STOMACH. 61

" The stomach of the 7nale corresponded main-
ly with the above description. In the first cavity,
the cells on the left side extended fourteen inches ;
there were ten transverse septa, four and a half
to nine inches long, three fourths of an inch to
two inches apart, and intersected, though not
regularly, by short septa ; three or four of the
cells would probably have held eight or ten
ounces. The cells on the right side commenced
about opposite the middle of the large muscular
band, and were thirty-nine inches in extent ; thir-
teen transverse septa ; cells midway about three
inches wide and very shallow, but at each ex-
tremity much smaller. The muscular band was
twenty-two inches long, and midway one half
inch thick. Small curvature of the second cavity
eight and one half inches, and the large, ten
and one half; inner surface midway and trans-
versely, ten and one half inches ; twelve trans-
verse septa, more regular than in the female, the
two large ones which intersected them running
about half the length of the cavity ; cells would
have held from half an ounce to an ounce ;
small muscular band seventeen inches long, one
inch wide, and about two lines thick ; muscular
coat generally thick, and the fibres transverse,
being in the female mostly longitudinal. Third
cavity forty inches long. Measured transversely
at the left extremity, three inches, diminishing
4

62 THE CAMEL.

afterwards to two and three fourths, but without
any appearance of there being an intermediate
cavity ; at the largest part it was fourteen inches,
at the contracted part nine, at the largest part,
after it again dilated, nineteen, and at the pylorus
four inches. There were about forty or fifty longi-
tudinal plicae ; beyond these the lining mem-
brane was about half a line thick, firm and rough
on the sm'face, and there was seen the pecu-
liar rugous membrane that was described in the
female, except that the color here was cineri-
tious. The gland at the pylorus, as it has been
called, was two inches long, one inch wide, and
half an inch thick."

It has often been said, that when desert trav-
ellers are reduced to extremity by thirst, their
camels are killed for the sake of the water to be
found in their stomachs. In a note to Russell's
History of Aleppo, the editor remarks, " That
water, in cases of emergency, is taken from the
stomach of camels, is a fact neither doubted in
Syria nor thought strange. I never was myself
in a caravan reduced to such an expedient, but
I had the less reason to distrust the report of
others, particularly of the Arabs, seeing that even
the love of the marvellous could in such a case
be no inducement to invention. It may, perhaps,
be superfluous to produce the authority of an
Arab historian, (Beidaw), who, in his account

ANATOMY OF THE STOMACH. 63

of the Prophet's expedition to Tabuc against
the Greeks, relates, among other distresses of the
army, that they were reduced to the necessity of
killing their camels for the sake of the water
contained in their stomachs." Daubenton found
in the stomach of a camel which had been dead
ten days, about three pints of clear water, almost
tasteless and still drinkable. Carbuccia states,
§ 16, that the stomach of a dead camel opened in
Algeria, in the presence of several officers, was
found to contain more than fifteen litras of a
greenish fluid, of a not unpleasant taste. The
Arabs who were present said that after standing
three days the water would become clear and
drinkable, and the experiment was tried with
success. Capt. Lyon asserts that water is taken
from the stomach of the camel, strained and
drunk. Although, therefore, Burckhardt^ de-
clares that he never heard of killing the camel
for the water in the reservoir, and doubts whether
that fluid would be found in it, the fact that un-
der some circumstances water in considerable
quantities is found in the stomach, must be re-
garded as established. But a case would not be
likely to occur where the supply would not hold
out as long in the water-skins of the traveller as
in the stomach of the camel, and therefore the
necessity of a resort to this source must be ex-
tremely rare.

' Bedouins, 260.

CHAPTEU yil.

SIZE, COLOR, DISEASES, TEMPER, AND LONGEVITY.

The height and bulk of the camel are very-
different in different breeds. The average height
of the Arabian camels I have measured was
nineteen hands, or six feet four inches to the top
of the hump, the head being an inch or two
higher.^ The tallest I have used measured seven
feet, and seven feet three inches respectively.
The very powerful Turcoman camel is said to be
somewhat lower than the Arabian ; but the indi-
viduals of this breed, composing two large cara-
vans, I saw at Broussa and near Ghemlih, were
taller than the Arabian camels I have seen, by
from four to six inches. The height of the Bac-
trian is stated at from six to eight and a half

1 Hammer-Purgstall, in commenting on a passage of an
Arabic poem, which he translates, " She lowered her head to
the level of the saddle," observes that the head of the camel
is much higher than his saddle. This may be true of the
saddle of the mahari, which is placed on the withers, but not
of the pack-saddle, or the common dromedary saddle used in
Arabia.

SIZE. 65

feet, his weight at one third more than that of
the ox, which, in the Crimea, is estimated at nine
hundred pounds, thus making the weight of the
camel twelve hundred. The Bactrians kept at
the Jardin des Plantes, and described by Cuvier,
measured about seven feet five inches to the
withers. K this measurement wholly excludes
the forward hump, which is sometimes nearly
two feet in height, the stature of the animal must
be very considerably above the average of that
of the Arabian. I was informed at Pisa, that
the animals of the Grand Duke's stables some-
times came up to fourteen hundred English
pounds, but I doubt the accuracy of the infor-
mation.

The swift dromedary varies even more in size
than the burden camel. Layard,^ mentions a
deloul from the Nedjd, where very fine animals
are raised, which was little taller than an Arab
horse, and all the proper Arabian dromedaries I
have seen were very small. The hajeen of the
Upper Nile, on the contrary, is much taller, fre-
quently, I am sure, not below eight feet. Lyon
speaks of a Tibboo mahari of seven feet eight
inches as small ; ^ and on one occasion a drome-
dary of this variety, measuring not less than

' New Researches, 332.

2 Lyon's Travels in Africa, 313.

66 THE CAMEL.

nine feet and a half to the middle of the back,
was brought to the camp of Denham.^

The most common colors of the camel are
mouse, drab, fawn, brown, and black. The Nu-
bian is, however, generally white, and the same
color not unfrequently occurs in the Bactrian.
Brown, according to Burckhardt, is disliked ; the
reddish or light gray, which sometimes occurs, is
preferred by the Anezeh ladies, while black is the
fashionable color with the women of Nedjd. I
have seen two or three instances of a very deli-
cate and pleasing rose tint, and these appeared
to be favorite animals. The color is always, so
far as I have observed, nearly uniform, except
that the parts least exposed are commonly lighter,
and the long hair about the neck and hump a few
shades darker, than the rest of the fleece. Spot-
ted, striped, or mottled camels, I have never seen.

Gen. Harlan thinks the cross between the
Bactrian and the Arabian more subject to dis-
ease than the horse, but observes, that in this
respect he has " greatly the advantage of the
dromedary of the plains, which frequently die in
great numbers, without apparent cause, especially
during the rainy season." At this season, par-
ticularly, the camels are subject to an epilepsy or
other convulsion, which is frequently fatal. Con-
finement and uncleanliness expose them to
^ Denham and Clapperton, i. 169.

DISEASES. " 67

mange, which, if neglected, produces death.
Burckhardt mentions as diseases always fatal, a
paralysis and distortion of the neck, probably the
" convulsion " noticed by Harlan, a diarrhoea
which attacks the young, and a colic caused by
swallowing with their fodder the dried dung of
goats or sheep. When broken-winded, which is
of frequeht occurrence, they are treated with the
cautery, a favorite remedy among most rude
tribes ; and a wounded hump, or a galled back,
is relieved by the same means. I have seen sev-
eral instances of serious inconvenience from an
annoyance mentioned by Burckhardt, the drawing
up of leeches into the mouth while drinking.
The leeches attach themselves to the back of the
palate and the gums, and often make a lodgment
under the tongue. The inaccessibility of the
parts, and the impatience of the camel, render
the removal of these pests difficult, and the ani-
mal is often sensibly weakened by the loss of
blood, while the soreness of the mouth produced
by the puncture of the leech, prevents him from
feeding freely. Carbuccia treats at considerable
length of the maladies of the camel, their causes,
and remedies. The most formidable of these
causes appears to be the sting, or more probably
the oviposition of a gad-fly, which gives rise to a
multitude of diseases. Starvation, which Car-
buccia judiciously classes among " fatal mala-

68 THE CAMEL.

dies," is declared to follow next after the sting of
the debab, as a source of mortality. The panacea
for most diseases, and even for the frenzy of the
male at the rutting season, is an external appli-
cation of ta7', not that extracted from the pine,
which is said to have no medicinal properties,
but yielded by a native African plant called arar,
or tdga.

The general testimony of observers is, that the
Arabian camel is liable to fewer diseases than
most domestic animals ; but the experience of
Burckhardt, of Harlan, and of Carbuccia, cer-
tainly strongly tends to show that this opinion
is not altogether sound. With the Bactrian,
however, the case is certainly otherwise ; and it
is abundantly shown that, at least in favorable
localities, he enjoys an almost complete exemp-
tion from the numerous maladies to which the
one-humped camel is subject. In reply to special
inquiries on this point, I am informed that almost
the only disease occurring among the Bactrians,
in Bessarabia, is a blistering of the tongue occa-
sioned by bad or decayed fodder, and sleeping on
damp and dirty ground. The soreness of the
tongue prevents the animal from eating, and he
pines away. The only known remedy is the
actual cautery.

In connection with the hygiene of the camel, I
may mention the furious excitement of the male

DISEASES. 69

at the rutting season, which amounts to a posi-
tive malady. It lasts through a period of some
weeks, during which he hardly tastes food ; and
Tavernier even affirms that he neither eats nor
drinks for forty days. At this time he is ungov-
ernable, violent, and revengeful, to that degree
that his master or others sometimes fall victims
to his rage. Carbuccia declares, as before
noticed, that the paroxysm may be calmed by
tarring the head of the animal. Castration is
attended with the same general results and ad-
vantages as in the case of other quadrupeds, and
it may be performed, it is said, at any age, and
without risk to the animal, or even a temporary
loss of his services. Various methods are em-
ployed, among which puncturing the testes with,
a sharp red-hot iron is recommended as the best.
The period of gestation does not appear to be
uniform. At least, most travellers state it at a
year for cold climates, while some declare that
the period varies from ten or eleven months to a
year in warmer ones. Alfred von Kremer even
informs us, that a ten month's foal is preferred in
Egypt to one of longer gestation. The female
bears every second year, and always a single
foal. She is used during pregnancy and lacta-
tion, at least in hot countries, though in colder
chmates she is generally allowed to repose for a
part at least of the former period. Harlan thinks

70 THE CAMEL.

that " the female of neither race is of much value
for burden," and Burckhardt says she is inferior
to the male in strength, but is considered both
swifter and better able to support thirst.

It is not easy to learn much from the Arabs
respecting the periods in the biography of the
camel. " Few Bedouins know their own age or
that of their children, and they cannot be ex-
pected to possess a better acquaintance with the
chronology of their cattle." The age at which
he becomes serviceable varies with breed, climate,
and other circumstances, but in general he is put
to labor in his third year, and arrives at his full
strength earlier or later in his fourth. His lon-
gevity is more uncertain. In India, according to
Forbes, he lives but twenty-five years. In Al-
geria, he does not attain a greater age than
thirty years, and he is fit for labor from fifteen to
twenty. In Syria and Asia Minor, his ordinary
life and service are ten years longer. A corre-
spondent in Bessarabia estimates the average life
of the Bactrian in that province at thirty-five
years ; while a Russian officer, of much experi-
ence in the use of this animal in the Crimea,
assures me that he lives ordinarily to the age of
sixty or seventy, and sometimes even to a hun-
dred. In any event, it is well settled that his
term of life and period of useful service very
considerably exceed those of the horse.

TEMPER. 71

The camel, though less vicious than the horse,
is not altogether so patient an animal as he is
generally represented. His anger is indeed not
easily excited, but when once thoroughly irri-
tated, he long remembers the injury which has
provoked him ; and the " camel's temper " is a
proverbial expression used by the Arabs to denote
a vindictive and unforgiving disposition.^ Al-
though he sometimes strikes with the fore foot,
yet the hoof being unarmed, his blows are feeble,
and his only dangerous weapon is his teeth.
These are used with powerful effect in the bar-
barous fights which are sometimes got up as
spectacles,^ but it is only under certain special
circumstances, which are easily avoided, that he
attacks his driver.

His only ordinary manifestation of discontent,
is the harsh and ill-natured growl he sets up
whenever he is approached to be loaded or
mounted, and especially when any attempt is
made to overcharge him. In the stillness of the
desert, the growl of a caravan, preparing for the
morning's march, is heard for miles around ;
though the true mahari seldom growls, and it is

1 Host, an accurate observer, says, {Efterretninger om
Marokos, 269,) that the Sultan of Morocco had camels trained
to act as executioners.

2 Maefarlane describes one of these cruel exhibitions, at
Smyrna, as a very savage and repulsive scene.

72 THE CAMEL.

said there are breeds which have entirely lost this
disagreeable peculiarity ; yet, in general, silent
as is the march of a burden caravan, its halts are
very unmistakably announced to all wanderers
within a long distance of its track.^ So harsh
indeed is the growl of the camel, that Father
Huc^ gravely declares that his camel-driver, on
one occasion, put a pack of wolves to flight by
tweaking his camel's nose till he roared again.

The dentition of the camel, like that of other
domestic quadrupeds, furnishes a convenient
indication of the age of the animal up to twelve
years, when it is completed, and no longer serves
as a criterion. I do not find a description of the
growth of the teeth dm-ing the first five years,
but Burckhardt says that, at the beginning of the
sixth year, the first pair of back teeth appear,
early in the eighth the second pair, and in the
tenth the third, each pak taking two years for its
growth.

I will close this chapter of disagreeables by an
extract from a writer whom I have often quoted.

" But on this head of desagreme^is I do not
care to be diffuse ; and I will mention as one of

i " Muzzle the mouths of your camels, and when they are
reposing, avoid approaching them, lest the groans they would
utter at the sight of their masters rouse the enemy. Daumas,
Le Grand Desert, 29.

2 Travels in Tartary, i. c. 3.

TEMPER. 73

them the incessant harsh growl of the camel
while loading and unloading, and indeed when-
ever he is approached by his driver or rider ; and
barely hint at another, which I will not say ' is
more easily imagined than described.' No ; as
there are heights to which imagination cannot
soar, so are there depths to which it cannot de-
scend. I remember one evening and night in
Wadee Feiran. No water — thermometer at
110°, air deathly still, and camels venj near.
Oh, for a draught of Lethe ! I faint at the
recollection. Reader, in hot weather pitch your
tent as far from your camels as you dare, and, if
there be a breeze, to the windward ! "

CHAPTER yill.

USEFUL PRODUCTS OF THE CAMEL.

The milk of the camel is a very favorite
drink in all countries where the animal is used.
Colonel Chesney, indeed, describes it as poor
and slightly saline ; but the Arabs, as well as
almost all travellers, represent it as highly salu-
brious and nutritious ; and Tavernier vouches
for it as a sovereign remedy for the dropsy. It
is universally believed to be a corrective of the
heating effects of the date, and the Arabs never
use that fruit in large quantities without milk.
Some of the pastoral tribes possessing large
herds, live almost wholly upon it during a great
part of the year, and it is frequently given to the
mahari and to favorite horses, which are ex-
tremely fond of it. It is asserted by the Arabs,
that this diet fattens the quarters and shoulders
only of the horse, but not the barrel.^ In a note
to a chapter of Daumas, Les C/ievaux du Sahara^

1 The camel cannot be fattened, says BurckLardt, after
he reaches his sixteenth year.

USEFUL PEODUCTS OF THE CAMEL. 75

Abd-el-Kader says: " The inhabitant of the Sa-
hara gives his horse camel's milk, which has the
special property of imparting speed to that de-
gree, that, according to what is testified upon
responsible and credible testimony, a man, by
drinking it exclusively for a sufficient time, ac-
quires such swiftness of foot, that he can suc-
cessfully contend in the race with the horse.
And, in truth, the milk of the camel fortifies
the brain and the tendons, and dissipates the fat
which relaxes the muscles." The quantity given
by the camel, without green food, does not cer-
tainly exceed a quart, but the Bactrian, which
enjoys a more succulent diet, yields twice that
quantity, and it is employed in the Crimea for
the same purposes as that of the cow. " Sheikh
Hussein had the complaisance to take along
with us a milch camel for the use of the ladies
of our party, and generally brought the milk-cup
to our tents in his own patriarchal hands, with
abundance of compliments and salaams. The
quantity given by the camel is small, but very
rich. Being myself no milksop, I cannot speak
of its quality from experience; but the ladies
found it both agreeable and refreshing, except
that occasionally the highly aromatic pasturage,
which, as poets sing, makes fragrant the air of
Araby the Blest, gave it a smack of 'pothecary-
stufT not altogether so toothsome."

76 THE CAMEL.

" Although the Bactrian, Turcoman, and Sy-
rian camels are well coated, their Arabian
brother has short, coarse, thin hair, except about
the chest, shoulders, and hips, where he has a
few locks of long, thick wool, and his tail is
tufted at the end, and fringed at the sides.^
I once saw some Bedouins shearing a camel,
and the fleece they got reminded me of a similar
operation proverbially said to have been per-
formed by a certain personage, who shall be
nameless, on his swine ; for if there was not ' a
great cry,' there was certainly very ' little wool.'
The hajeen is close sheared in Egypt, as is the
mahari in the Sahara. In the Arabian penin-
sula, the hair, which Burckhardt says does not
exceed two pounds in weight, is generally
plucked off by hand. The fleece of the Bac-
trian averages ten pounds in the Crimea, and
that of the same animal and of the cross in
Bokhara, and in Cabul, is said, by General Har-
lan, to be equal in weight to the fleeces of four
sheep, while the Turcoman yields not much
more than half that quantity. Like the wool
of the sheep, it varies exceedingly in fineness
and softness, as well as in the length of the
staple and in weight. The coarser kinds, some-

1 " The tail is like the two wings of an eagle sewed to
the bone with an awl." Arabic poem quoted by Tiniour,
Meditations Bosphoriques.

THE HAIR. 77

times mixed with goat's hair, are twisted into
halter ropes, knit into caps, or woven into web-
bing, girdles, sackcloth, tent-cloth, and carpets.
Among the Tartars, where the wool is finer,
cloth of a close texture and great dm-ability is
manufactured from it, and Burnes speaks of a
'fine water-proof cloth' of camel's hair, made in
Bokhara.^ In Cabul, cloths are woven from it,
says General Harlan, ' approaching in softness
the wool of Thibet, and surpassing in silky
smoothness and fineness the most delicate flan-
nel.' It is weU known that none of the fabrics
sold in Western Europe under the name of
camel's hair, are made of the wool of this ani-
mal. The shawls formerly called camel's hair,
but now more generally cashmere, are manu-
factured from the wool of the Thibet goat, now
partially naturalized in France by the joint
efforts of Ternaux and Joubert, and other
animals of the goat family. And it is a cir-
cumstance worth mentioning, that French shawls
are woven with Oriental patterns for European
consumption, and with European designs for
the Eastern market. It appears, however, from
Erman, that shawls of an exceedingly fine qual-
ity are manufactured in Bokhara, of camel's
wool, though they rarely, if ever, find their way

1 The raiment of John the Baptist was of camel's hair.
Matthew III. 4.

5

78 THE CAMEL.

to the shops of London or Paris. ' Among the
wares brought from Bokhara,' (I quote from
Erman, Reisen i. 198,) ' are the shawls manu-
factured there. The Russians affirm, that these
precious fabrics are woven from the downy hair
of the belly of the dromedary. By means of
fine combs, the soft wool is collected from time
to time, and spun into yarn as fine as a human
hair. These shawls are composed of two strips
about eight inches in width, sewed together, and
ornamented with figured borders made from the
fibrous bark of a plant described by the Rus-
sians as a nettle. A white shawl with orna-
mented borders is often sold for twelve thousand
rubles."

The utility of the camel does not cease with
his life. His flesh, especially the hump and
heart, is a favorite food among all camel-drivers,
though most European travellers have found it
tough and unsavory. Travellers generally ac-
company caravans, and seldom reside long
among the more stationary tribes in their ha-
bitual localities. Upon a march, a camel cannot
be slaughtered without transferring his rider or
his burden to other beasts, already perhaps over-
loaded, and he is therefore seldom killed until he
falls, or is ready to die, with exhaustion. In this
case he is immediately butchered, the Bismil-
lah (in the name of God!) being first pro-

THE SKIN. 79

nounced over him. Under such circumstances,
his flesh cannot be otherwise than hard and
unpalatable. But where the animal is in good
case, the flesh appears to be not inferior to that
of other domestic quadrupeds. Daumas says,
" all the flesh is good, and the hump is the
choicest dish a host can offer to guests of dis-
tinction." A correspondent in Bessarabia com-
pares it to good beef ; and Carbuccia says it is
scarcely distinguishable from the flesh of the ox.^
The skin is applied to a great variety of uses.
" It makes water-skins," says Daumas, " which
retain the water in spite of wind and sun, or
boots which protect the foot of the traveller
against the bite of the viper, and the scorching
of the heated sands. Stripped of its hair,
soaked, and applied to the frame of a saddle, it
fits itself to the shape of the wood, and when
dry clings to it like the bark to a tree, without
nails or pins." This solidity and density of tex-
ture is a point of no small importance in its use

^ " I have ah'eady spoken of the milk, but though I con-
fess to a reasonable degree of enlightened curiosity on the
subject of novel aliments, yet I have never carried that
laudable passion so far as to partake of barbecued drome-
dary, or hifteck de chameau. I must, therefore, refer my
gastronomic readers to the testimony of more diligent and
pains-taking inquirers, which, however, is not always very
favorable to the savoriness of those outlandish viands." Jour-
nal, referred to in Preface.

80 THE CAMEL.

as a material for water-sacks. The goat-skin —
of which they are generally made as a matter
of convenience, because, when you have stripped
off the skin whole, and tied up the apertures, the
sack is ready without a stitch — is so porous
that the water transpires freely, and soon be-
comes exhausted, if the sack is exposed to the
sun or to drying winds. The skin of the camel
is of different degrees of thickness and of
strength, according to age and breed ; and while
some travellers compare it to that of the horse,
I am assured that, in the provinces of southern
Russia, where it is principally used raw for
thongs, straps, and the like, it is not greatly
inferior to that of the ox in toughness and dura-
bility. In Arabia, it is tanned and dyed yellow
with the peels of the pomegranate, or red with
a root found in the desert. In Algeria, accord-
ing to Carbuccia, it is thicker and more valuable
than that of the ox.

The tallow, when rendered, is as white as
wax, and as a material for candles scarcely infe-
rior to that substance.^ I do not learn that the
bones have been applied to any useful purpose,
but from the apparent solidity of the skeletons,
which lie scattered along the great desert routes,
I have little doubt they would be found useful

1 Ritter xiii. 693. Carbuccia, p. 142.

FUEL OF THE DESERT. 81

ill the arts. The droppings of the camel are the
universal fuel of the desert, and the abundance
of this article at the usual places of encamp-
ment is one of the reasons why the Arabs are
reluctant to stop for the night at any unfre-
quented station.

CHAPTER IX.

DIET, AND POWERS OF ABSTINENCE.

With such an organization as is described in
Chapter VI. it is obvious that the camel can sub-
sist for a considerable time upon a quantity of
food and of water otherwise quite inadequate
for the sustenance of so large an animal. It is
upon this property that his great value chiefly
depends.

By means of the nutriment derived from the
absorption ©f the hump, and the fluid preserved
in and perhaps also secreted by the water-sac,
he is able to travel several days without any new
supplies of either meat or di'ink. The period of
abstinence depends upon the temperature and
season, the breed, training, and habits of the
particular animal, and the amount of labor de-
manded of him.

"With respect to food, there is no doubt that
the camel sometimes endures two, three, ^ and

1 Carbuccia, p. 15.

DIET, AND POWERS OF ABSTINENCE. 83

even more days of entire privation ; but long
abstinence from food is seldom necessary, be-
cause, although there are well-attested instances
of the existence of tracts of desert frequently
crossed by caravans, six days' journey in width,
and absolutely without a particle of vegetation,^
yet there are few portions of the Libyan or
Arabian deserts where more or less of the shrubs
on which the camel feeds do not occur at very
much shorter intervals.^

1 Denham and Clapperton, i. c. 3.

2 Nothing can be more erroneous than the popular im-
pression with regard to the absolute sterility of the desert.
As a general rule, it may be stated that no extensive tracts
are wholly devoid of winter vegetation except in rainless
regions, which are by no means numerous, and which are
themselves often interspersed with oases watered by wells, or
springs derived from distant and unknown s«)urces. There
are few parts of the Libyan desert where water may not be
found at moderate depths, and though Shaw, Travels^ 135,
speaks of wells in Wady Reagh one hundred and even two
hundred fathoms in depth, yet, in general, water is obtained
very near the surface. Wherever there are winter rains,
heavy dews in summer, or abundant wells, there is vegetation,
arborescent or herbaceous, according to the character of the
soil and the supply of moisture ; and even in the drought of
summer, the twigs, seed-vessels, and withered foliage of the
desert plants supply the frugal camel with the necessary
nutriment. The Syrian desert, as it is called, between the
Hauran and the Euphrates, is in general carpeted with a
luxuriant winter vegetation, and though now laid waste by

84 THE CAMEL.

On the ordinary routes, therefore, the camel is
not fed at all, even on long journeys, but is left to
snatch his food as he can during the march of
the caravan, or gather it more leisurely while it
halts. In a journey of seven weeks which I
made with these animals in Arabia Petrsea, in
the months of May and June, but a single camel
of the caravan received any food from his driver.
This was a fine large animal bred by the Ababdeh
Arabs, which was fed at every evening halt with
from a pint to a quart of beans. His habit of
feeding as he walks is a serious inconvenience to
the traveller. At the commencement of the day's
march, he is ever on the look-out for the stunted
acacias and other prickly plants, which, with
occasionally a more succulent herb, constitute
almost his sole diet, and he snatches them in
passing, giwng you an uncomfortable jerk as he
turns to seize them, or suddenly stops, at some
hazard of throwing you over his stooping shoul-

the wandering Arabs, was once the seat of a dense popula-
tion. Throughout Arabia Petrtea and the greater Arabian
Peninsula, the valleys and depressions of the soil, and the
more moderate mountain slopes, are thinly dotted with aca-
cias, tamarisks, and numerous arborescent plants. The water-
courses of the winter streams, along which lie the usual routes
of travel, are marked, when not mere mountain torrents, by
belts of reeds and shrubs. Even proper grasses sparingly
occur also in small ravines, or on the rocky shelves which
retain a little earth and catch the fallins moisture.

85

ders, and, in spite of your most urgent persua-
sives, browses at his leisure.

Burckhardt,! o^j^^j j think Denham, state, that
the African camel is prepared for long journeys
by cramming him beforehand by actual force, for
several days in succession, with three times his
usual allowance of dhourra meal,^ but Father
Hue and Timkovski declare that the Bactrian is
hardened for the task by several days of previous
abstinence, or at least sparing nourishment.

When herbage and browse are altogether
wanting, a small quantity of beans, a few hand-
fuls of dates or even date-stones, crushed, or
barely softened by soaking in water,^ a ball or
two of dough of barley-meal, dhourra millet, or
other grain, or a small supply of some dry vege-
table are given each camel daily. According to
Edrisi, they are sometimes fed with dried fish.
Denham says they are fond of "crunching" dry
bones, and Riley even declares that he sometimes
saw them fed with charcoal. The favorite food
of the camel consists of the leaves, branches,

1 Nubia, 157.

2 Pottlnger says that the Belooches thrust a ball of coarse
meal and water as large as a child's head into the throat of
their dromedaries, and a similar statement is made by
Kampfer. Ritter, Erdkunde, xui. 651,

3 Burckhardt, Arabia, 356. Denham and Clapperton, iii.
c. 3, observe that eating dates after drinking intoxicates
camels.

86 THE CAMEL.

and seed-pods of the acacias and other prickly
trees or shrubs, of thistles, and of the saline
plants so common in the desert; and almost
every vegetable zone is found to furnish some
plant specially suited to his nutriment, while, in
case of necessity, he scarcely refuses any green
tiling.^ His powerful jaws and teeth enable him
to grind and masticate branches of the hardest
wood as thick as the finger. His palate is lined
with a very hard cartilage ; and the inside of the
lip, the tongue, and the gums are protected by
a skin almost equally impenetrable. The lips
are, nevertheless, very flexible, and the upper
labrum is divided. In feeding on the acacia or
other pricldy plants, he retracts and partially in-
verts the lips, grasps the twigs with the tongue
and jaws, and thus crops and chews the thorniest
shrubs with impunity.

The camels domesticated in Tuscany, which,
though degenerated by a residence of centuries

1 Carbuccia, page 10, says that the camel never touches
the " aloe ; " but an official report, at page 182 of the same
volume, enumerates the " cactus " among the wild vegetables
consumed by him. Hammer-Purgstall, p. 1 7, mentions the
coloquintida among the vegetables eaten by the camel.
There are two or three species of this bitter plant in the
Sinaitic peninsula, in Wady el Araba, and the valleys of
Mount Seir, but I have always seen camels, however hungry,
refuse them.

DIET, AND POWERS OF ABSTINENCE. 87

in the moist climate and alluvial soil of the
lower Arno, are of the Arabian stock, neglect
the green and tender cultivated grasses, but de-
vour with avidity the leaves and smaller branches
of the oak and the alder, and the hard dry stems
of the thorn, the thistle, and the broom. The
working camels at the grand duke's farm, near
Pisa, are sheltered and fed on hay during the
winter, but the rest of the herd remain in the
open air, and subsist on twigs and withered
shrubs through the cold season.

The Bactrian camel has the same fondness
for saline plants as his African congener ; but
he feeds also upon the leases, twigs, and bark of
deciduous trees, the coarsest grasses, thistles,
reeds, rushes, weeds, straw, and, in short, upon
such vegetable diet as is rejected by almost every
other domestic quadruped.

The statements of travellers differ very con-
siderably with regard to the quantity of solid
food required by the camel. My own observa-
tion would lead me to think it extremely small.
As I have already stated, he is often not fed at
all; and in travelling, his only opportunity of
gathering his food is between the evening halt
and sunset, when he returns to the camp, (for he
never feeds in the night,) ^ with such scattering

1 Burckliardt, Arabia, 34. Fraser, Khorasan, 379. Ta-
vernier, i. 121.

88 THE CAMEL.

mouthfals as he can snatch upon the march.
The vegetation of the desert is usually so sparse
that the quantity of nutritious food which can
be collected after the day's journey is performed
must be very inconsiderable ; and though upon
starting in the morning the animal shows signs
of hunger, and much annoys his rider by sud-
denly stopping or starting aside to crop a tempt-
ing thorn, twig or thistle, yet in an hour or two
his appetite is satisfied, and he performs the rest
of his task without seeming to crave food.^ I was
assured by the keeper of the herd at Pisa, that
when fed entirely on hay, the camel consumed
little more than half as much as the horse ; while,
on the other hand, a correspondent in the Crimea
informs "me that the Bactrian camel requires at
least fifty pounds of hay per day in winter, and
another in Bessarabia estimates the daily winter
supply of hay and straw at seventy pounds.^
Pottenger states that although the camels of
Beloochistan can almost wholly dispense with
food for five or six days together, yet they ordi-
narily receive about fifteen pounds of meal daily,
besides grass and shrubs, and he adds the singu-
lar fact that the Belooches give these animals

1 Carbuccia says, p. 15 and p. 68, that in good pasturage lie
consumes enough for the day in two hours.

2 Carbuccia, p. 158, estimates his daily supply of (green)
herbage or shrubs at 25 kilos, or about 60 lbs.

DIET, AND POWERS OF ABSTINENCE. 89

considerable quantities of opium and goor, a
kind of inspissated molasses, with their food.
Burckhardt^ says, that the Berber traders give
their camels twelve pounds of dhourra every two
or three days, and that, when loaded with burdens
of 600 or 700 pounds, they require a daily allow-
ance. The Turkmans, according to the same
authority ,2 give their beasts every evening a ball
of barley-meal, kneaded with water, and weigh-
ing about one pound. The difference in this
case is no doubt occasioned by the comparative
scarcity and abundance of green fodder, and it
may be considered on the whole as established,
that the camel thrives and labors with a less
proportional supply of nutriment in quantity,
and that too of a coarser and cheaper' quality,
than is required by any other domestic quadru-
ped. The power of the camel to abstain from
water is much more frequently and severely
tested than his ability to dispense with food.
The testimony of travellers, as well as of native
observers on this subject varies widely ; but their
discrepancies can generally be explained by dif-
ference of breed, of season, or by the greater or
less succulence of the solid food consumed by
the animal.

The most extraordinary statements I have

1 Nubia, 193. 2 Syria, 637.

90 THE CAMEL.

seen are those of the official reports of the
French officers attached to the dromedary corps
in Algeria. One of these reports declares that
the camels of the corps employed in the expedi-
tion of El Aghouat did not drink from February
to May, though the weather was very hot;^ and
General Carbuccia, the commander of the corps,
states that the Algerine camel never drinks
during the last two months of autumn, and the
entire winter and spring. He adds,^ " at the
beginning of summer, he drinks, and then
abstains fifteen days. After having drunk
again, he goes fourteen days without water,
then thirteen, then twelve, &c., and finally seven
days, diminishing gradually his periods of absti-
nence By a day. After this, he drinks every
seven days, and not oftener, whatever may be
the heat, or the fatigues of the journey." Un-
fortunately for the credit of this remarkable story,
Carbuccia ^ himself, p. 159, contradicts it, by stat-
ing that when the camel feeds on the guettaf,
a saline shrub, he drinks every day from the 15th
of June to the end of winter. Burnes says that
in Bokhara he goes two or three days without
water, but becomes feeble, and finally dies on
the fourth day, or sooner if the weather is hot.

1 ' Meme par les plus fortes chaleurs.' Carbuccia, p. 204.

2 Du Dromadaire, p. 15. 3 lb. 159.

DIET, AND POWEES OF ABSTINENCE. 91

Burckhardt^ states that the camel of Asia
Minor, which seldom drinks in winter, requires
water every other day in summer, and if longer
deprived of it frequently dies on the third.
The Nedjd camel will often die if not watered
by the evening of the fourth day, and he de-
clares that in Arabia the utmost limit of absti-
nence in summer is four, or possibly in some
cases five days, though the animal shows signs
of great distress after the third. The camel of
Nubia and the Sahara has much greater powers
of endurance in this respect. Denham and
Clapperton, i. c. 3, mention a case of eight
days' entire privation of w^ater, with dry food.
Burckhardt^ records an instance of like ab-
stinence, of the same duration, in the month of
August, and in his Notes on the Bedouins, 259,
he ascribes to the camels of Darfur the power
of dispensing with water for nine or ten days,
even w^hen on the march. The Tibboos and
other tribes, who constantly traverse the Sahara,
are very confidently affirmed to possess camels
which can support a privation of fifteen days
without serious inconvenience ; but this belief
rests on native authority, and I can find no
European traveller who testifies upon personal
observation to a longer abstinence, in the dry

1 Bedouins, 258. 2]N'ubia, 186.

92 THE CAMEL.

season^ than in the cases cited from Burckhardt
and Denham and Clapperton. I have myself
witnessed in Arabia Petrsea an instance of com-
plete privation for four days, in very hot weather
and with dry fodder, but I have always observed
that in the summer, the camel, like the Bedouin,
drinks as often as he has the opportunity. In
most countries where the animal is used, it is
said he can dispense with drinking twice as long
as the horse under the same circumstances ; and
this I doubt not is a very near general approx-
imation to the truth. These facts, however
wonderful, are by no means so extraordinary
or incredible as they may at first sight appear.
The animals of the deer and antelope tribes
which inhabit the Sahara often pass many weeks
together in the heat of summer, in the most
parched districts of the great Libyan Desert, with-
out possibility of access to any known supply of
water, and they probably possess powers of
abstinence at least equal if not superior to those
of the camel. The domestic ox, when supplied
with abundance of green fodder, seldom inclines
to drink. Persons familiar with sheep husbandry
know that in rich pastures that animal thrives
very well for many weeks in the hottest sum-
mers, without any water but that which falls in
the shape of dew. If I mistake not. Captain
Stansbury's mules travelled two whole days

DIET, AND POWEE OE ABSTINENCE. 93

along the margin of Salt Lake without food or
water, and Abd-el-Kader, in a letter cited in Dau-
mas,^ says, " our horses went a day or two with-
out drinking, and on one occasion they found
no water for three days." In fact, the Arab horse
is seldom allowed to drink oftener than once in
twenty-four hours.

The quantity of water taken by the camel
after long privation is very great, and one would
hardly believe that the fluid could be driven by
a forcing-pump through so long, narrow, and
crooked a channel as this animal's gullet, so
rapidly as he swallows it. Carbuccia, p. 15, says
he drinks from thirty to forty litres. Burckhardt^
estimates his usual quantity at from fifty to one
hundred pounds. I have seen a camel empty
at a draught three goat-skins, holding not less
than seven gallons each. Riley speaks of even
much larger quantities, and Russell says that
after long thirst they sometimes drink so greed-
ily that it proves suddenly fatal to them.

He smells, or by some other perception detects,
water at the distance of a mile or more. The
whole caravan, disdaining all control, rushes
confusedly to the pool, to the great injury of the
luggage, and the imminent peril of the knees
and ankles of the rider, which he can secure from
bruising only by drawing them up under him,

1 Les Chevaux du Sahara, 405. 2 Xubia, 79.

6

94 THE CAMEL.

and sitting d la Turque, on a very wavering and
unstable foundation.

It is not the mere power of abstinence alone
that so eminently fits the camel for traversing
the steppe and the desert. His preference for the
brackish and even saline waters which almost
exclusively occur in those regions, and which are
often so highly impregnated with mineral sub-
stances as to be rejected by most other quadru-
peds, is a property almost as valuable. Russell
even states that he chooses salt water rather
than fresh, and Burckhardt^ affirms that both
camels and horses drink the sea- water left by
the ebb of the tide in the wadys communicating
with the Red Sea. I do not think, however,
that this is the common habit of the animal, for
I do not find it mentioned by other writers, and
I have seen them, when parched with thirst, rush
to the sea, wade into it, and turn from it, with
evident disappointment on finding it salt.

The elder Pliny and some modern writers say
that the camel purposely makes the water turbid
before drinking, as has been alleged of the horse,
by stirring the mud at the bottom with the foot ;
but as neither of these quadrupeds can usually
reach the surface of a pool or river without wad-
ing into it, it is much more probable that the
disturbance of the fluid is an unintentional one.

1 Syria, 661.

CHAPTER X.

TRAINING AND TREATMENT.

The breaking in of the camel commences
when he is very young, and the manege of the
ordinary animal is very simple and soon com-
pleted. The high-bred dromedary, however, re-
quires a careful training, which, as Daumas says,
occupies more than an entire year of the time of
his groom. Tavernier states, that the new-born
foal is made to lie down, folding his legs under
him, and covered with a cloth, the edges of which
are loaded with stones to confine him in this
posture. He is thus kept fifteen or twenty days,
and in the mean time sparingly fed with milk.
The object of this treatment is said to be to ac-
custom him to lie upon his belly rather than
his side, and to enure him to thirst. It is quite
certain that young camels intended for burden
are not usually subjected to such a regimen, and
notwithstanding Tavernier's general accuracy,
it may be doubted whether the foal requu-es
any teaching to adopt the mode of lying down
which his physical structure prescribes. The

96 THE CAMEL.

fact, nevertheless, that such a training was pur-
sued elsewhere than in the countries visited by
Tavernier, appears from the account given by
Brue, a Frenchman, who travelled in Senegal
towards the close of the seventeenth century,
and who describes the process in much the same
words. At present, however, it is believed that
the only education generally bestowed upon the
ordinary animal is simply to habituate him
gradually to the halter and the pack-saddle, and
to teach him to lie down and rise at the word
of command. Nature and the imitation of his
fellows do the rest. I quote at length, from
Daumas,^ his description of the training of the
mahari of the Sahara.

" As soon as the foal is dropped, he is swaddled
with abroad band to compress his intestines and
prevent the belly from acquiring too great a
volume. The bandages are removed in eight
days. The young mahari is an inmate of the
tent, a playfellow of the children, and habit
and gratitude attach him to the family, whom
he feels to be his friends. In the spring he is
sheared, and for a year he sucks when he pleases,
and follows his dam at will. He is not yet
troubled with lessons, and is as free as if in a
wild state. When the time for weaning arrives,
one of his nostrils is pierced with a sharp stick,

1 McEurs et Coutumes de VAlgerie.

TRAINING AND TREATMENT. 97

which is left remaining in the wound,^ and when
he attempts to suck, it pricks the udder of the
dam, which repulses him with kicks, and he soon
abandons the teat for the fresh grass of the sea-
son. He is again sheared in the spring, and at
the close of the second year, his education com-
mences. For the first lesson, they put upon him
a halter, the rein of which is made to shackle
one of his legs, and he is kept motionless, at first
by gestures and the voice, and then by the voice
alone. The halter is now loosened from his leg,
but replaced if he takes a step. He now begins
to understand what is wanted, and this lesson
is repeated until he will stand a whole day with
his halter dragging, where his master has placed
him. An iron ring is now passed through the
right nostril and permanently riveted. To this
is attached a rein of camel's-hair rope, carried
from right to left, and connecting on the shoulder
with the rein of the halter, which passes up on
the other side. He is next accustomed to the

1 This would seem almost incredible, were it not confirmed
by the authority of Burckhardt. " The young camel is
weaned at the beginning of his second year. He is pre-
vented from sucking by driving a sharp wooden pin, four
inches long, through the palate and nostrils. The Turco-
mans tie a sharp stick across the nostrils instead. Before
weaning, the foal is prevented from sucking too often by
tying up the udder in a camel's-hair bag, or a wooden bowl."
Bedouins, 111.

98 THE CAMEL.

rahkala, or dromedary saddle. This is of a con-
cave form, with a broad, high back, and elevated
pommel, and the rider sits as in a bowl, crossing
his legs over the neck of his dromedary, and se-
cured on all sides by the support of the saddle.
The least pull of the rein upon the nose-ring is
so painful to the animal, that he always, pas-
sively, moves to the right or left, advances, or
steps backward, at the will of his rider.

" To teach him to kneel when the rider cries
sh, sh, sh ! an attendant strikes his knees at the
moment the cry is uttered, and until he kneels
at the word. His pace is quickened by the whip
accompanied with a shrill ejaculation. He is
taught to stop suddenly at whatever rate of
speed, if his rider falls or leaps from the saddle,
and to describe a small circle around a lance
which his master plants in the ground, and re-
sume the gallop as soon as he plucks it up.^
His training is now complete. He is no longer
a colt, but a mahari."

Although this account is derived from the
best sources, it must not be imagined that the
common dromedary receives a training by any
njeans so finished, and it is only upon the more

l"Tlie Bedja camel follows the lance when thrown, that
his master may recover it, and if it falls to the ground, he
stoops with his hind quarters to allow him to pick it up."
Makrizi, as quoted by Burckhardt, Nubia, 458.

TRAINING AND TREATMENT. 99

promising foals, or the high-blooded breeds, that
these extraordinary pains are bestowed.

The young camel is able to stand and walk
at his birth. If he is dropped upon a march, an
event by no means uncommon, he is generally
carried for a day in the arms of a slave on foot,
or on the back of the dam, after which he is left
to follow her as he can, and he usually manages
to keep up with the caravan. " A young lady
of my party," says a writer often quoted, " rode
several days with a new-born foal tied to the
tail of her dromedary, and the brisky juvenile
appeared to have little difficulty in keeping pace
with his mamma, although occasionally, in the
latter part of the day's journey, his tow-line,
which in the morning had a good deal of slack,
would get hauled rather taut."

The Bedouin regards the foaling of a camel
with much the same feelings as Sterne's Obadiah
greeted the advent of his calf. " Lo ! another
child is born to us," cries he, upon the arrival of
the youthful stranger, and he receives him with
almost as much interest and affection as he be-
stows on the new-born heir of his tent, and of
the flocks, which constitute the only wealth of
the nomade tribes. The camel is almost uni-
formly treated with much gentleness by the wan-
dering Arabs, though the Egyptians and other
nations who are less dependent upon them, as

100 THE CAMEL.

well as the Bedouins who border upon the valley
of the Nile, often deal very harshly with them.
Speaking of the latter people, St. John, in his
narrative of his visit to the oasis of Siwah, says :
" The Bedouin has no affection for his camel.
He starves him on principle, to accustom him to
it, and maltreats and neglects him." Indeed, the
expression of anxiety and often terror, which the
camel assumes upon being approached, seems to
indicate an expectation of ill-treatment, and a
consciousness of the inability to resist or resent
it ; but there is certainly little in his ordinary
treatment by the desert tribes to warrant his
timid apprehensions.

The camel displays no inconsiderable sagacity.
He detects springs in localities where they have
not before been known to exist, and tradition
affirms that even the holy fountain Zemzem was
not revealed to man, but discovered by a stray
camel. Upon frequented routes, the drivers leave
them to their own guidance, sleeping the while,
and if by any chance the track is lost, the whole
troop is soon in a state of alarm and confusion. It
is even said that when the caravan is led astray by
the ignorance of the guides, the camels are soon
aware of it and become quite ungovernable with
terror.

It is a popular belief that the camel has a
musical ear, and it is said that the drivers in

TRAINING AND TREATMENT. 101

some countries carry flutes to cheer and enliven
their animals when weary with the march. In
my narrow experience, I have witnessed no such
practice, but the Arabs often commence towards
the close of the day's journey, a wild chant in
the minor key ^ which, as they allege, percepti-
bly enlivens and inspirits the camel, but I can-
not say that I have seen any very obvious
effects from it.

Hammer- Purgstall, p. 69, observes that " the
drivers accomplish more by the chant than by
blows," and that the Arabs have words to desig-
nate the particular effect of song on the music-
loving camel. " The camel," says he, p. 95,
" loves singing better than mere shouting, and
marches more cheerfully to its tones. The
chanting driver, no longer urging his beast by
blows or words, does not follow the camel, but
walks before him. Camels particularly fond of
singing have special names, and there are appel-
lations appropriated to musical drivers ; it even
appears that caravans are accompanied by

1 The music of the Arabs is hardly reducible to our sys-
tem of notation. The musical reader will find a very curi-
ous article on this subject in one of the early volumes of the
transactions of the American Oriental Society. It is an
Essay on Arab music by Mr. Meshaka, a highly cultivated
Christian Arab of Deir el Hamer in Syria, with notes and
additions by Prof Salisbury of Yale College.

102 THE CAMEL.

camel- singers when the drivers cannot chant. '
Hammer-Purgstall, it will be observed, does not
mention instrumental music as employed for this
purpose.

By long familiarity and close observation, the
Arab acquires a wonderfully minute acquaint-
ance, not only with the general characteristics of
the camel, but with the physical peculiarities
which distinguish his particular beasts. Thus
Burckhardt says they readily trace an estray by
his track, and every wanderer in the desert sees
daily proofs of a power which they possess in
common with other tribes, whose life depends
on a thorough knowledge of particulars, that
among civilized nations are regarded as unim-
portant. That most admirable traveller, Layard,
whose knowledge of the character and habits
of the Arabs and other races that compose the
population of the Turkish empire is unrivalled,
affirms that the Bedouin, from marks left by the
camel, will tell whether he was loaded or un-
loaded, full or hungry, fatigued or fresh, the time
of his passing, whether the rider was an inhabi-
tant of the desert or the town, a friend or a foe,
and sometimes even his tribe. " My deloul,"
adds, he " has even been led by my guide, that
those who might cross our path might not detect
that it was ridden by one not thoroughly accus-
tomed to the management of the animal."

TRAINING AND TREATMENT. 103

With a trivial exception, to be noticed here-
after, the camel is never housed or sheltered in
all the wide range of climates through which he
is diffused. Tavernier says he is sometimes
gently beaten with a small rod by way of curry-
comb, but in general he receives no dressing,
washing, or care whatever, except the adminis-
tration of medicaments in disease. That more
attention on the part of his drivers would be
well repaid, there can be little doubt ; but among
civilized nations, there would be some danger of
error upon the other side, especially in abridging
him of that liberty of roving, which seems to be
a necessary condition of his existence.

CHAPTER XI.

BURDEN AND FURNITURE.

The camel, with his slender and shrunken
limbs, his light quarters, and his shambling gait,
seems little adapted to the performance of any
labor requiring either speed or strength ; but his
powers of endurance enable him to accomplish
a long journey in a shorter space than even the
horse ; and he bears a burden greatly dispropor-
tioned to his own weight. The camel of the
great Arabian Peninsula, though remarkable
for his speed, is less powerful than the Bactrian,
the Tm'coman, the Syrian, or the Egyptian ani-
mal. Li Arabia Petraea, his load does not ordi-
narily exceed three or four hundred pounds.
Brown estimates the burdens of the camels of
Soudan at the same weight ; and Burckhardt
that of the Nubian camel at four or five hun-
dred pounds. In India, according to Forbes,^
his proper burden is five hundred pounds,
though some powerful animals may carry from

1 Oriental Memoh's, ii. 69.

BURDEN AND FURNITURE. 105

six hundred to seven hundred. Fraser states
his load in Khorasan at from four hundred and
fifty to seven hundred pounds. Colonel Ches-
ney found the loads of a caravan of several
hundred camels, in the Syrian desert, to average
five hundred and fifty pounds, though he else-
where states their common burden to be six
hundred.

In Algeria, he carries two or three hundred
kilogrammes, (450 to 675 pounds,) but at Cairo,
according to Burckhardt, fifteen hundred pounds
for a distance of three miles, and one thousand
from Cairo to Suez, which is eighty-four miles.
In Cabul, according to General Harlan,^ the
burden of the Arabian camel is, upon the plains,
four hundred pounds ; that of the cross between
the Bactrian and Arabian, under similar cir-
cumstances, six hundred, and over mountainous
roads four hundred pounds. In European Tur-
key, the one-humped camel is said to carry from
four to five hundred pounds ; and Burnes esti-
mates the load of the same animal in Bokhara
at five hundred pounds. The burden of the
Turcoman camel, according to Burckhardt, is
eight hundred pounds ; Forbes rates it fi-om
seven hundred to one thousand, Fraser one
hundred pounds higher, and Tavernier at one
thousand ; and, for short distances, even fifteen

1 U. S. Pat. Rep. 1853, Agrlc. 61.

106 THE CAMEL.

hundred. Timkovski states the burden of the
Bactrian of Northern Tartary at from four hun-
dred and twenty to four hundred and eighty
pounds ; Erman,^ at about six hundred pounds.
Burnes estimates that of the same animal in
Bokhara at six hundred and fifty pounds, and
Bergmann, among the Cahiiucks, at eight hun-
dred. I was told by one of the keepers of the
Grand Duke's camels, at his farm near Pisa,
that these animals would carry their own
weight, which he estimated at twelve or thir-
teen hundi'ed pounds, but I thought the weight
of the burden and probably that of the camel
exaggerated.

Numerous other authorities might be cited,
but the result would not be essentially varied.
The pound used by these different writers is,
probably, not always the same weight, and this
circumstance may explain, to some extent, the
difference in their estimates. Almost all au-
thors agree in saying that the northern breeds
are much stronger than the southern ; but the
difference in this respect does not appear to be
important, though there is little doubt that, in
northern climates, at least, the cross is to be
preferred, as a beast of burden, to either of the
pure species. The ability of the camel to rise
under his load is a common measure of the bur-
1 Reisen i. 410.

BURDEN AND FURNITURE. 107

den he can carry ; but it would hardly be a safe
test in a mountainous country, or on ground
otherwise unfavorable. We shall probably not
err widely in assuming from five to seven hun-
dred pounds as a general average of the camel's
burden, according to the weight of the animal,
the smoothness or ruggedness of the route, and
the distance to be travelled ; and with the small-
est of these loads good animals would easily
surmount any mountain passes practicable to
other beasts of burden. The weight of the
pack-saddle, which is considerable, is excluded
in these estimates. Although the camel of both
species may be said to be most generally used
as a beast of burden, yet the Arabian some-
times, and the Bactrian often, are employed for
draught. Athenaeus,^ mentions six double spans
of camels as figuring in a ceremonial procession
of one of the Ptolemies, at Alexandria. Seet-
zen^ saw a single camel harnessed to the
plough, near Hebron, drawing by the shoulder,
and Minutoli represents the animal as employed
for the same purpose in Egypt, as, according to
Chesney and Colonel Tod, he is also in Afghan-
istan and Sinde. I have seen them drawing
large stones upon wheels in Egypt, and Me-
hemet Ali and others have used them for trans-
porting heavy ordnance. These were all of the

1 L. V. c. 32. 2 Eeisen iir. 31.

108 THE CAMEL.

one-humped species. Although the Calmucks,
and other half-civilized and savage tribes in the
remote territories of Russia, and in Independent
Tartary, employ the Bactrian only for the
saddle and for burdens, yet Timkovski saw a
carriage drawn by this animal in the desert
of Gobi, and he is used in Bessarabia for
riding, for the plough, and for draught ; in the
Crimea for draught alone, being seldom ridden
in the latter province. Demidoff describes the
wagons (madjars) drawn by these animals as
clumsy four-wheeled vehicles of wood, "with-
out a particle of u*on," and speaks with admira-
tion of the strength and docility displayed by
the camels. They are simply yoked to the pole
in the same manner as oxen are with us, and
have no other gearing. I have elsewhere stated
that a pair of them will make long journeys
with a load of three thousand or four thousand
pounds.

In whatever mode the camel is employed, his
harness and furniture are very simple, and as
the dromedary is not often a monture de luxe^ he
is, even when ridden by persons of consideration,
seldom decked with trappings so showy as those
of a favorite horse. The camel is sometimes
guided by a plain halter,^ sometimes the septum,

1 " The halter is of the simplest form, handsomely twisted
of goat's and camel's hair, sometimes tastefully decorated

BUKDEN AND FURNITURE. 109

or one of the alse of the nose is pierced, an iron
ring inserted, and a cord attached to this to
serve as a bridle. The French, in their military-
service, have found it convenient to use both
the halter and this rude bridle in conjunction.
Instead of the ring, Meyer found that, in Sibe-
ria, the hair-cord of the halter was sometimes
passed through the septum, and Burckhardt
observes that, in Nubia, the males, when unruly,
are controlled in the same way, though, in Ara-
bia, the nose is seldom pierced. In Northern
Tartary, according to Erman,^ and Father Hue,
a semicircular bone or piece of wood is passed
through the septum of the nose, and the reins
of the halter, or rather bridle, are attached to the
ends, which project a couple of inches on each

■with cowries, fringes, and other ornaments, and furnished
with a loop for throwing over the saddle-peg, or otherwise
securing it. In racing, it is attached to a ring in the nos-
trils, but generally passes round the nose like a common
stable-halter, and the use of the bit is quite unknown. If
you are a green hand, an Arab leads your dromedary for a
day's journey or so, and then intrusts you with the halter ;
■which, as soon as you feel at home on your beast, you throw
over the pummel, unless you are one of those fidgetty, ill-
bred persons, who don't know what to do with their hands,
when they are not quill-driving or knitting; in which case,
sir or jnadam, you may hold the halter, and occupy your
digits in playing with the tassel at the end of it."

The Desert, Am. Whig Review, uhi supra.

no

THE CAMEL.

side, and are somewhat larger than the middle
of the bone. The bit is nowhere used, nor am
I aware that it has ever been even tried. It
would seriously interfere with the animal's habit
of feeding as he walks, but the mahari is seldom
allowed to do this, and it might, perhaps, an-
swer for that variety. There does not, indeed,
appear to be any urgent necessity for its intro-
duction, nor is there, on the other hand, any
very obvious objection to its use. Perhaps a
leather ring around the nose, like that which is
often used at Naples and elsewhere in southern
Italy instead of a bit, and armed with blunt
points within, in something the same way,
might be an improvement on the common
camel-halter.

The pack-
saddle, whe-
ther for riding
or for burden,
is made by
stuffing a bag
seven or eight
feet long with
straw or grass,
doubling it
and sewing

ARABIAN camel: PACK-SADDLE. ^J^g gj^^^g ^q.

gether. This forms an oblong ring, which is

BURDEN AND FURNITURE. Ill

furnished with a rope crupper and placed upon
the back so as to inclose the hump. Upon this
cushion rests a frame consisting of two pairs of
fiat sticks meeting at top like a chevron or pair
of rafters, and connected at bottom by a couple
of sticks two or three feet long, secured to the
others by thongs. The pad soon fits itself
to the shape of the back and sides, and the
frame nestles into the pad, while the hump ris-
ing in the centre of the whole apparatus keeps
everything in place, so that no girth, or at most
a loose rope, is needed to confine the saddle.
The load stowed in sacks, or better still in rope
nettings, is balanced across the saddle, and the
water-skins are suspended beneath.

The pack saddle of the Bactrian must of
course be modified to suit the different configur-
ation of the back, but it is substantially Hke that
of the Arabian animal. The double hump cre-
ates some inconvenience in arranging the pad,
and an impression that the humps are too sen-
sitive to allow of loading the backs extensively
prevails. It is for these reasons, no doubt, that
the Bactrian is little used for burdens in Cabul
or the Russian provinces, on the Black Sea, but
the objections have not elsewhere been found
formidable enough to interfere seriously with
the usefulness of the animal. Erman says ex-
pressly that he saw them at Kiachta, wiili bales
on both sides of their pack-saddles.

112 THE CAMEL.

" This," says a writer before quoted; " is the
entire harness of the burden camel when, as is
usual in the desert, he is left at liberty. Else-
where he is provided with a simple halter, and
tied head to tail, in strings, properly of seven
animals, the hindermost wearing a bell, in order
that the driver who rides the file leader, (or per-
haps a donkey, as being a beast of softer pace
and easier guidance,) may be advertised of any
solution of continuity in the chain by the fainter
sound of the accustomed ding-dong." ^

As the camel lies down to receive and dis-
charge his bm'den, he is very quickly and conve-

1 Tavernier, Voyages, i. 121, saw camels in divisions of
seven connected with each other by a rope attached to the
pack-saddle, and tied to the nose-ring of the camel following
by a small cord made purposely weak, so that if one fell, the
cord might break without pulling down another, or tearing his
nose. Burckhardt, Nubia, 388, says, that in Nubia and the
Hedjar, the camels are made to march mfile, because if the
load of one of them requires arranging he can be led out of
the file, and reloaded before the last of the train has passed,
whereas, when they travel in line, the whole caravan must
halt if one is obliged to stop. In Egypt, and in the Syrian
desert, the caravans march in line, and a caravan of 2,000
show a front of a mile. There is evidently some mistake in
this. A camel, with a pack-saddle, occupies hardly less
than six feet of front, and allowing nothing for intervals, a
caravan of 2,000 would extend more than two miles. In
fact they could not be made to advance in a smaller space
than four miles at the least.

BUEDEN AND FURNITUEE. 113

niently loaded and unloaded ; the latter opera-
tion generally consisting simply in loosing a knot
of the cord by which the packages are slung
across the saddle, and the camel then immedi-
ately rises and goes in search of pasture. On
returning to the camp at evening he lies down
between the packages; and if these consist of
merchandise or other articles not requiring to be
opened at night, the driver has only to knot the
cord again, and the animal is ready for the
march.i The pack-saddle is very rarely removed ;
and as the camel very seldom stretches himself
on his side or attempts to roll, the saddle is never
lost.2

The gear of the dromedary is somewhat lighter,
but of the same fashion. The wooden frame is
more neatly made, the uprights being curved out-
wards and uniting at top in two conical pom-
mels, one before and one behind, six or eight

1 Tavernier, i. 130. Forbes says, that two men will load
or unload twenty-five camels in half an hour.

2 Carbuccia says, p. 5, that the camel rolls like other quad-
rupeds, but p. 131, he observes that one of the cords which
confine the pack-saddle is merely loosened at night, and the
animal turned out to feed. The removal of the pack-saddle
at night would much expose the animal to chills, and Dau-
mas refers to the danger of removing even the loading be-
fore the animal is cooled. The pack-saddle is certainly not
ordinarily removed at night, and I have never seen a camel
roll, or, so far as I remember, lie upon its side.

114 THE CAMEL.

inches high, and perhaps two in diameter at
the base, covered with figured brass plate or
otherwise decorated, and terminating in a knob,
after the manner of the finial of a gothic pedi-
ment. Over the saddle is thrown a large pair of
saddle-bags of striped goat's-hair cloth, orna-
mented with fringes and cowrie shells, and upon
this are laid blankets, cushions, and carpets, and
perhaps a gay housing over all. The rider is
perched at the summit of this pyramid, dkectly
over or perhaps a little in advance of the hump ;
and his stirrups, if he uses them, his zemzemeek
or leather water-bottle, his gun, a smaller pair of
saddle-bags or a carpet-bag, or any other conve-
nience he may choose, (for there is room for all,)
are hung to the pommels. In riding the mahari,
however, the Tuaricks, and other wild tribes, sit
on, or rather in, a small saddle much in the form
of a bowl, placed in front of the hump, upon the
withers, and secured by girths. They hold a tight
rein, and steady themselves by crossing their
ankles on the camel's neck. The saddle used
for the dromedary in Nubia, according to Burck-
hardt, much resembles that of the horse. When
riding without a saddle, the Bedouin sits behind
the hump, and holds by the long hair which
decorates that appendage. This extreme sim-
plicity and economy of harness has, with trifling
modifications, been carried into the military ser-

BURDEN AND FUENITURE. 115

vice by the French in Algeria, and wherever else
the camel has been employed in war, and is
found to answer all purposes as completely as
the costly furniture with which we supply our
cavalry. Every soldier may be his own saddler,
and he requires no material but bagging, straw
or grass, a little cordage, and a few small sticks,
which may be found wherever there is any ar-
borescent vegetation, to extemporize at an hour's
warning the complete equipage of his beast.

Invalids, and luxurious persons, require more
artificial arrangements for travelling on the
camel. " Ladies, both paynim and Christian, do
generally bestride the dromedary, after the en-
sample of the lords of the creation, but when
the delicacy, the health, or the dignity of dame
or seignior forbid this, Arab ingenuity hath con-
trived other means of transportation. The
simplest is the shibreei/eh, a sort of platform
composed of mattresses, carpets, and cushions,
resting on a pair of luggage chests, or other
scaffolding secured to the pack-saddle, and with
or without an awning. This may be long enough
to allow the traveller to sit or lie at will. The
next is the moosultah^ which, in its rudest form,
consists of a couple of frames much resembling
old-fashioned high-backed chairs, except that
they are considerably larger, and have the seat,
or rather flooring, at the bottom of the legs.

116 THE CAMEL.

These frames are suspended uprightly across the
pack-saddle, the travellers squat uncomfortably
within them, and an awning supported partly by
the high backs is thrown over them. You will
sometimes meet a whole harem, (not indeed so
large as Sultan Solomon's,) stowed away in a
moosultah ; and I once saw a mother and three
pickaninnies of ' assorted sizes ' riding in one of
these contrivances. There is another much less
objectionable form of this apparatus, which is
not unfrequently used by ladies of rank or per-
sons in ill health. It was called a mahafa by our
dragoman and Arabs, though Lane ignores both
the name and the thing, which is remarkable,
considering that it is not uncommon in Egypt.
The mahafa consists of a pair of boxes, or rather
frames, some five feet long, two or more wide,
and about two deep, with posts at the outer cor-
ners, and a wooden bottom. These frames, like
those of the moosultah, are hung across the pack-
saddle, and a large and usually showy awning is
supported over all by the posts at the corners and
another resting on the pack-saddle in the centre,
besides which it has side curtains, or when used
by Mussulman women, perhaps lattices. In or-
der to balance the mahafa, it must carry two per-
sons, or, if there be but one, an equivalent weight
as a counterpoise on the other side. The weight
of the mahafa is considerable, and with the nee-

BURDEN AND FURNITURE. 117

essary mattresses and cushions, and two persons,
it makes a heavy load for an Arabian camel, and
is of course quite out of the question for a prop-
er dromedary. It is at best an uncomfortable
conveyance, but invalids can hardly travel other-
wise, and their ease may be very much promoted
by substituting for the wooden bottom a frame
with a stout tight sacking. Last and most lux-
urious of all, is the takhtirawan, or camel-litter,
which, from its gi-eat length, can only be used
on routes of convenient width, and free from
steep grades and sharp corners, and is therefore
unsuited to ordinary desert travel. The takhtir-
awan has a general resemblance to a coach-body
resting on two very long shafts, and is borne by
two camels, walking between the shafts as in
thills, one before and one behind. It is gener-
ally intended for two persons, but Pietro della
Valle says that the comoda e galante takhtirawan,
which he had made at Ispahan for the convey-
ance of the fair and courageous Maani and her
damsels, allowed convenient space for four to sit,
or three to lie. According to Lane, ' the head
of the hinder camel is painfully bent down un-
der the vehicle.' ^ Della Valle does not men-

1 Burckhardt, Arabia, 263, speaks of the takhtirawan as
used by Pachas and other great people, and he mentions
seeing the heads of the camels that bore one of these vehi-
cles " bent down bi/ fatigue " but does not say that they were
kept down by the form of the takhtirawan.

118 THE CAMEL.

tion this circumstance, and I should imagine
that, by giving the shafts a proper length, the
necessity of it might be avoided."

The account given in the above extract cor-
responds with the descriptions of most travellers,
except in the nomenclature. The apparatus
styled moosuJtah in the extract is called by Burck-
hardt shckdof^ by Seetzen schdckadif, and Taver-
nier, Lyon, and Burnes apply the name of cajava
or kajaivah to the mahafa^ for which latter term
I find no authority. Burnes complains, that in
travelling in a kajawah, he at first suffered from
sea-sickness, but he was able to read and take
notes, which is hardly practicable in any other
mode of camel-riding. A more extraordinary
vehicle than any of the foregoing is described
and figured by Layard. This is a light frame-
work of cane, sixteen or twenty feet long, cov-
ered with parchment and ornamented, as are
also the body and neck of the camel which bears
it, with tassels and fringes of worsted of every
hue, and strings of glass beads and shells. The
frame is balanced athwart the pack-saddle, and
in a sort of pavilion in the centre sits the high-
born lady, its occupant, the arms of the frame
extending on both sides like the wings of a but-
terfly, and not less gaudy and variegated. The
motion is described as swaying and uncomfort-
able. Of course, none of these contrivances ad-

BURDEN AND FURNITURE. 119

mit of rapid motion, and they are only suited
for feeble persons and comparatively short and
slow journeys.

CHAPTER XII

SPEED AND GAIT.

The rate of travel of the burden camel is ex-
ceedingly nniform, and it varies little in the dif-
ferent species and breeds of the animal. It has
been made a matter of careful study by many
travellers, with a view to its employment in geog-
raphy, as a measure of distance. Burnes ob-
served, that a file of twenty-two camels occupied
a distance of ninety-four yards, and that they
passed over this space in one minute and a
half, or ninety seconds, which gives a speed of
two miles and about three hundred yards per
hour. Upon a sandy soil, he found a diminu-
tion of the rate, for which he allows one hundred
yards per hour, and like all other travellers, he
remarked that the step was naturally quicker in
the night or early morning, than in the heat of
the day, or at the close of a fatiguing march.
Over a smooth and level surface, I have found
his ordinary length of step to be six feet, and the
number of steps of each foot to be thirty-seven
to the minute. This gives a speed of two miles

SPEED AND GAIT. 121

and fifty-two hundredths to the hour, under the
most favorable circumstances.^ Upon rougher
ground, it is of course proportionately retarded.
Robinson has investigated this subject with his
usual care, and upon an examination of the best
authorities, adopts, as the result for the caravan
of loaded camels, an average speed of two and
one third miles per hour. The speed is of course
greatly modified by the nature of the ground,
and other contingencies, but all in*egularities of

^ Carbuccia, p. 21, says, " The icalh of tbe camel on level
ground is eighty-five steps of l""- 25 to the minute." This
would give a speed of four miles the hour, which is much
beyond the truth, and it will be observed, that the number of
steps to the minute is nearly twice that stated by Col. Ches-
ney, although the length of step is much less. (See post in
this chapter.) In p. 132, he tells us that the camel marches
more slowly than the infantry, but as he does not halt, he ar-
rives earlier at the bivouac. A report by Capt. Aubac of
the French army, Carbuccia, p. 200, states, that on a march
of 30,000 metres, the camels gained four hours and a quarter
upon the infantry, and upon a march of 28,000 metres, they
gained three hours. On these occasions, they carried burdens
of nearly three hundred pounds, a fagot of wood and a goat-
skin of water, besides a rider, weighing in all certainly five
hundred pounds. During a part of the mai'ch they trotted
and even galloped, and Capt. Aubac adds, that the camel
if pressed, will gain upon the infantry fifteen minutes the
hour. Carbuccia can be reconciled neither with this report
nor with himself. His facts and his opinions must always be
received with caution, and I have seldom quoted him, except
where he is supported by other authority.

122 THE CAMEL.

this sort are usually compensated in long jour-
neys, and I have no doubt that Robinson's es-
timate is as near an approximation to the truth
as the nature of the case admits.

The length of the caravan day's journey, when
there is no special motive for haste, is regulated
by the distance between wells and pasture-
grounds; but it is seldom less than ten, and
more frequently twelve or fourteen hours, and in
most countries the entire day's journey is per-
formed without a halt, Burnes says, the camel
of Bokhara travels fourteen successive hours, or
about thirty miles per day, and that on one oc-
casion he accomplished seventy miles with a
caravan in forty-four hours, stops included.
Burckhardt travelled at the rate of ten hours per
day, for thirty-five days together, resting only a
single day. Lyon ^ says the camels of the Sahara
march without a halt from sixteen to twenty
hours, and many other travellers confirm these
accounts, all of which refer to the camelus
dromedarius, or one-humped camel.

But this falls short of the ordinary perform-
ances of the Bactrian of the Crimea and indepen-
dent Tartary. Bergmann states the ordinary
day's journey of this variety at forty miles, and
without burden, at from fifty to sixty-five miles.
Correspondents of my own, who have had long
1 Travels in Africa, 91.

SPEED AND GAIT. 123

and excellent facilities for observation in Bess-
arabia and the Crimea, where the Bactrian is
used principally for draught with wheel carriages,
agree in saying that upon a good dry road, a
pair of these animals will draw a load of from
three thousand to four thousand pounds a dis-
tance of fifty miles without eating, drinking, or
halting^. It would certainly be entirely safe to
average the day's journey of both species at ten
hours, or twenty-three miles per day, and there
is very little doubt that, with due care and at-
tention, thirty miles per day can be averaged
by caravans for any desirable length of time.
This is the estimate for animals with full bur-
dens, and left to their natural gait, but in case of
emergency, and with lighter loads, both the rate
of travel and the length of the day's march may
in all probability be much increased, at least for
moderate distances. There can be no doubt,
therefore, that on soils and in climates adapted
to his organization, the camel, as a beast of
draught or burden, is decidedly superior to the
horse, the ox, or any other domestic animal.

The value of the camel as a beast of the
saddle for general use, is more questionable, but
he may be advantageously employed for personal
transportation under many conditions, and in
many localities where neither the horse nor the
mule can be used. Many of the Arab accounts

124 THE CAMEL.

of the fleetness of the mahari are no doubt fables,
and one may well question whether Jackson's
story of the dromedary that bore his master on
an errand of love from Morocco to Mogador and
back, a distance of two hundred miles, in a
single day, is not exaggerated. But the nu-
merous well-authenticated evidences of this ani-
mal's great speed and power of endurance, leave
no doubt that in the union of these two qualities
he far surpasses the horse, as well as all other
domestic quadrupeds.

Mehemet Ali, when hastening to his capital
to accomplish the destruction of the Mamelukes,
rode without changing his camel, from Suez to
Cairo, a distance of eighty-four miles, in twelve
hours. A French officer in the service of the
Pacha, repeated the same feat in thh'teen hours,
and two gentlemen of my acquaintance have
performed it in less than seventeen. Laborde
travelled the distance in the same time, and af-
terwards rode the same dromedary from a point
opposite Cairo to Alexandria, a distance of about
one hundred and fifty miles, in thirty-fom* hours.
But the most extraordinary well-authenticated
performance of the dromedary is that recorded
by the accurate Burckhardt in his Travels.^
The owner of a fine dromedary laid a wager
that he would ride the animal from Esneh
to Keneh, and back, a distance of one hundred
1 Nubia, 262.

SPEED AND GAIT. 125

and twenty-five miles, between sun and sun.
He accomplished one hundred and fifteen miles,
occupying twenty minutes in crossing and re-
crossing the Nile by ferry in eleven hours, and
then gave up the wager. Burckhardt thinks
this dromedary would have travelled one hundred
and eighty or two hundred miles in twenty-four
hours without serious injury. The valuable paper
extracted from the notes of General Harlan, and
printed in the U. S. Patent- Office Report of
1853, Agriculture, 61, states that the ordinary
day's journey of the dromedary of Cabul is sixty
miles, but that picked animals will travel one
hundred miles a day for several days in succes-
sion, their greatest speed being about ten miles
an hour. Captain Lyon ^ affirms that the ma-
hari of the Sahara will travel many successive
hours at the rate of nine miles an hour. The
Syrian deloul goes in five days from Bagdad to
Sokhne, a distance which the loaded caravans
require twenty-one days to perform, or from the
same city to Aleppo in seven, the caravans gen-
erally taking twenty-five. Couriers have ridden,
without change of dromedary, from Cairo to
Mecca in eighteen days, while the ordinary
camels .seldom accomplish the journey in less
than forty-five. Layard ^ gives several instances

1 Travels in Africa, 114.

2 New Researches.

8

126 THE CAMEL.

of apparently remarkable performance, but as
the distances are not stated, it is not easy to
compare them with those recorded by other au-
thors. A late and apparently credible writer
says : " I knew a camel-driver who had bought
a dromedary belonging to a sherif of Mecca,
lately deceased at Cairo. This animal often
made the round trip between that city and Suez,
going and returning in twenty-four hours, thus
travelling a distance of sixty leagues in a single
day." ^ The performance of the dromedary is
rather understated by the writer. The actual
distance between Cairo and Suez is eighty-four
English miles, and the animal must consequently
have accomplished one hundred and sixty-eight
miles in twenty-four hours. He remained four
hours at Suez to rest, and therefore travelled at
the rate of eight miles and four tenths per
hour.

Upon longer journeys, the daily rate of the
best dromedaries, though not equal to these in-
stances, is still extraordinary. A French officer
of high rank and character in the Egyptian ser-
vice, assured me that he had ridden a favorite
dromedary ninety miles in a single day, and five
hundred miles in ten. Mails have been carried
from Bagdad to Damascus, upon the same ani-
mals, four hundred and eighty-two miles, in
1 Kevue Orientale, i. 280.

SPEED AND GAIT. 127

seven days ; and on one occasion, by means of
regular relays, Mehemet All sent an express to
Ibrahim Pasha, from Cairo to Antioch, five
hundred and sixty miles, in five days and a half.
But the most remarkable long journey on record
is that of Col. Chesney, of the British army,
who rode with three companions, and without
change of camel, from Basrah to Damascus, a
distance of nine hundred and sixty miles, in
nineteen days and three or four hours, thus
averaging fifty miles per day, the animals having
no food but such as they gathered for themselves
during the halts of the party. These dromedaries
averaged forty-five steps a minute, with a length
of step of six feet five inches, giving a speed of
about three and one third miles the hour.

In an appendix to the work of Carbuccia,
Jomard affirms that a detachment of the cele-
brated dromedary regiment in the French army
of Egypt, marched from Cairo to El-Arish, from
El-Arish to Suez, from Suez to Cairo, and from
Cairo to Pelusium, a distance in all of not less
than six hundred miles in eight days^ and he
adds that the ordinary day's march of the regi-
ment was thirty French leagues, or about seventy-
five miles, without a halt. These extraordinary
statements rest on the testimony of a single in-
dividual, and though the corps was composed
wholly of picked animals and picked men, and

128 THE CAMEL.

inspired by the energy of a Bonaparte, I find it
quite impossible to give them full credence.

The Bactrian certainly does not possess the
speed of the Arabian deloul or the African ma-
hari, but he is used extensively, and with great
advantage, in high northern latitudes, as a beast
of the saddle. He is ridden through all the vast
teiTitory where he occurs, except in Cabul and
the Crimea, and, as we have seen above, is capa-
ble of travelling from fifty to sixty-five miles in
a day, a rate of performance quite equal to that
of the common dromedary. In the winter espec-
ially, as Bergmann says, they are preferable to
horses, because they are more sure-footed, and
the length of their legs enables them to travel
with ease in a depth of snow where a horse could
scarcely move at all. Their gait under the saddle
appears to resemble that of the Arabian, the
light amble, according to Bergmann, being easy,
while the swifter pace violently tosses the rider.

The regular gaits of the camel are all properly
paces or ambles, that is, he does not move his
legs, like most other quadrupeds, per diametrnm,
but lifts the fore and hinder feet of the same
side at nearly the same time. When hotly pur-
sued by cavalry, he breaks into an awkward gal-
lop, but this movement, which is a rapid one,
can be kept up but a short time. Carbuccia
says, p. 21, " a horse upon the gallop is quickly

SPEED AND GAIT. 129

distanced by the dromedary on the gallop," and
again p. 129, " they gallop well, and there is no
soldier who has not seen horsemen pm'sue them
at full speed without overtaking them." Jomard,
in the appendix before quoted, says, " the swiftest
horses are outstripped at last by the dromedary,
which, starting with a long trot, equals the speed
of the horse, and finally comes up with him."
Bergmann, as quoted by Ritter,^ speaking ap-
parently of the Bactrian of the Calmucks, states,
that when they are galloping, entirely at liberty,
no horseman can overtake them. Burckhardt,
on the contrary ,2 declares that the speed of the
dromedary never approaches, even for short dis-
tances, that of the common horse, and that he
cannot maintain his swiftest pace for more than
half an hour. When we consider that this
traveller was familiar with the Berber dromeda-
ries and with those of Nedjd, which are acknowl-
edged to be the swiftest breeds, and especially
when we compare the structure and habitual
movements of the two animals, we can scarcely
fail to conclude that his testimony is worthy of
more confidence than the conflicting evidence I
have cited. I witnessed a dromedary race at the
camp of an Arab Sheikh in the Sinaitic pen-
insula. About a dozen animals, mostly young,

1 Erdkunde, xiii. 692.

2 Bedouins, 263.

130 THE CAMEL.

contended for the victory, and as I have before
remarked, their noses were slit the day before, by
way of preparation. The course was not above
two or three hundred yards, and so much time
was lost in starting and turning, that though they
went at a prodigious rate over the centre of the
course, it was difficult to form any estimate of
their speed as compared with that of the horse.
The race presented a very animated picture, and
the shrill shouts of the ambitious riders, the ap-
parent rivalry of the animals, and the peculiar
ululatus of the women, which the Arabs pretend
is produced by a rapid lateral vibration of the
tongue, gave the whole scene a very wild and
exciting character.

From the great length of step, the motion of
the burden camel and the slow walk of the
dromedary are necessarily violent, and at first
very wearisome to the rider; but a few days
practice accustoms him to this rough exercise,
and he performs his day's journey with as lit-
tle exhaustion as upon horseback. " Although
mounted on an animal capable of much fleeter
motion," says a writer in the American Whig
Review, whom we have before quoted, "the
traveller is, in general, obliged to conform to the
snail's pace of the caravan, because he cannot
with convenience, or indeed at all times with
safety, be separated from his baggage and at-

SPEED AND GAIT. 131

tendants ; but if he is content to dispense with
the comforts of tents, camp-bedsteads and stools,
and folding tables, and to subsist on the simple
fare of the Arabs, he may traverse the wilder-
ness at a far more rapid rate."

" Most travellers complain of camel-riding as
a peculiarly wearisome and unpleasant mode of
locomotion ; but with these fastidious persons I
can by no means agree ; and as compared with
the

Pack-horses, and hollow, pampered jades of Asia,
That cannot go but thirty miles a day,

whereof we had large experience in the hill
country of Palestine and the parts adjacent,^
my party all unhesitatingly gave the camel the
preference. Of course, on a good road, neither
too soft nor too hard, where you may choose
your pace, walk, jog-trot, amble or gallop your
beast, avail yourself of

tolutation,

As they do term't, or siiccussation,

just as jumps best with your humor; the horse, I
will not deny, is a better vehicle than the camel,
in respect of fatigue at least, in the same pro-

1 The reader will find a very faithful description of the
horses usually furnished Frank travellers in Syria, in the
history of the gazelle hunt, in Mr. G. Ross Browne's very
lively and amusing Yusef, or a Crusade in the East.

132 THE CAMEL.

portion that the hippogriff is better than either ;
but excepting the space between Cairo and Suez,
you will not find many roods of such road in the
Deserts of Libya, nor yet in Araby the Stony, or
even the Blest. In fact, the great Macadam, the
colossus of Roads, does not appear as yet to
have visited the greater or the lesser Peninsula,
which therefore remain much in the same con-
dition that man was before 'the social compact,'
namely, in a state of nature."

Tavernier observes, that the quick amble of
the dromedary is easier than his walk, and Berg-
mann makes a similar remark. Burckhardt,^
speaking of the fine dromedaries of the upper
Nile, says they are unequalled for ease to the
rider when allowed to take their own pace, an
amble of five, or five and a half miles the hour,
and the Arabs apply to them a proverbial ex-
pression, " his gait is so soft that you may drink
a cup of coffee while you ride him." A day's
journey of fifty or sixty miles at this pace is an
easy achievement. At much more rapid rates,
however, the motion becomes again intolerably
violent, and an inexperienced rider finds it al-
most impossible to cling to the saddle, or even
to catch his breath, though at the ordinary speed
the seat is more secure than on horseback.

1 Bedouins, 263.

SPEED AND GAIT. 133

Jomard, citing the authority of Col. Pretot,
says that the violent motion of the animals of
the dromedary corps sometimes brought on a
spitting of blood in the riders, and although
Carbuccia denies, what has been often affirmed,
that the movement produces a nausea like sea-
sickness, Burnes, it will be remembered, travelling
in a kajaivah^ experienced this inconvenience.
" The rider of the mahari," says Daumas,^
" strengthens himself by two very tight belts or
girdles, one about the loins and abdomen, the
other under the armpits."

The security of the seat, though at once felt
by all who have mounted the camel, seems hardly
reconcilable with the violence of his motion, and
is not easily explained ; but nothing is more rare
than a fall from his back, except when he is mov-
ing at a much more rapid pace than his ordinary
amble of five miles an horn- or thereabouts. A
writer already more than once quoted, says : " To
me, who am no graduate of Astley's, and so sorry
an equestrian that I respect Alexander more for
the taming of Bucephalus than for the conquest
of India, this security is a great point ; you may
sit sidewise or backwards, with feet resting in
stirrups, or legs crossed or dangling, and arms
folded or akimbo, with no fear that your beast
will kick up or stumble and pitch you over his

1 Mceurs et coutumes de I'Algerie, 354.

134 THE CAMEL.

head, or rear and throw you over his tail, or shy-
out from under you at the sight of an old woman
or the bow of a country school-boy, or take the
bit in his teeth and run to Quoddy with you, at
the ' report of a caliver ' or the flutter of a sheep-
skin ; but nevertheless, with a full sense of my
responsibilities, I do take it upon me to deny the
boast of some, that they can use a telescope, read
write, and cipher, sew, knit, darn stockings, and
even draw, a-camelback. The motion of the
beast is a compound of rolling and pitching sim-
ultaneously executed, and much resembles that
of a very short ' dug out ' with a strong, rough
current abeam, and a sharp heavy swell fore and
aft. The elder Pliny, who read and dictated
not only in his chariot, but even while sham-
pooing^ would have been compelled to intermit
his lucubrations during a promenade a chamecm;
and though the Arab will hang like a sack across
the pack-saddle, or stretch himself from stem to
stern along the load, and sleep as securely as a
bear in a hollow log, or a sailor in the main-top,
the most you can accomplish, fair madam, will
be to look about you, which you can do to good
purpose, while your hands are as useless as if
they were tied to the cross-head of a mill-
saw."

Every oriental traveller can testify that the
Arabs often sleep upon their camels when on the

SPEED AND GAIT. 135

march,^ and Colonel Chesney '^ and Layard give
curious accounts of the preparation and even
cooking of food on the backs of the camels by
the Arab women, during forced marches. Dur-
ing a retreat, one woman mounted on a camel
loaded with grain, grinds the wheat in a hand-
mill ; the flour is passed to another riding an
animal that carries the water-sacks ; she mixes
and kneads the dough, and passes it to a third,
who bakes it in a portable oven or chafing-dish
heated with wood or straw. The milking of the
female camels is performed with equal facility
and as little delay, and thus the march is kept
up, without a halt, as long as the animals are
able to travel.

1 Burckliardt, Arabia, 312, describes the robbers who lie
in wait for the caravans as jumping up behind the riders
when they are asleep, and pillaging the loading ; and in the
same volume, page 314, he observes that the camels are ac-
customed to stop when their masters fall asleep.

2 Expedition to the Euphrates, ii. 671.

CHAPTER XIII

THE CARAVAN.

" For the purposes of general observation,
camel-riding is the most advantageous of all
possible means of conveyance. The slowness
and regularity of your rate of progress, the ele-
vation of your seat, which gives you a wide range
of vision, and (no trilling matter in the parched
desert) secures you the full benefit of every
breeze that blows, and your entire exemption
from the necessity of guiding or even watching
the movements of your beast, afford you the
greatest facilities for studying the aspect of the
country, and enjoying the unrivalled sublimity
of the mountain ranges which in the Arabian
and most other deserts, you so often skirt or tra-
verse. With a special attendant too, whom
you can call upon to pick up a stone, or gather
some curious plant, or, upon occasion, to bring
your camel to a halt, that you may take a sketch
or record an observation, or dismount and ex-
amine for yourself some tempting vein of mineral
or other interesting object, you wiU have every

THE CARAVAN. 137

opportunity for observing and noting in detail,
and thus enjoy a combination of advantages
hardly attainable in any other mode of travel.
Such an attendant is almost indispensable if you
desire to make botanical or mineraloofical collec-
tions, or if you aim at anything beyond a mere
general view of the phenomena by which you
are surrounded. Without him, you will hardly
be able to stop your beast ^ until after you have
lost sight of the flower or mineral that has attract-
ed you, and if you finally succeed in overcoming
his repugnance to lag behind the rest of the car-
avan, and persuading him to kneel and let you
dismount, he will be sure to be up and away
while you are gone back for your treasure, leav-
ing you to pant after him when you have satis-
fied your curiosity or bagged your specimen.
Again, the wadys through which your road lies
are sometimes of considerable width, and as the
camel chooses his path without any reference
to the picturesque, it may happen that some
other route would better suit your view-hunting
propensities. In this case, you cannot readily
rein him out of the track as you might a horse,
and then make up for lost time by following
on at a gallop. Any deviation from the beaten
path costs you, first, a hard struggle with your
self-willed beast, and then, if you prevail upon

1 Burckhardt, Syria^ 445. " The camel cannot be stopped
while his companions are moving."

138 THE CAMEL.

him to go your way, you soon find yourself
separated from your company by a greater dis-
tance than is always agreeable in partihus infidc'
Hum. Major Skinner saith, ' A thick cherry stick,
with a cross at the end of it, serves to guide the
animal ; a gentle tap on the right side of his neck
sends him to the left, and one on the opposite
side turns him back to the right ; to make him
move quicker, prick him with the point of the
stick on the shoulders ; a knock on the back of the
neck stops him, and a few blows between the
ears, accompanied by a certain guttural sound
resembling the Arabic letter Me, bring him to
his knees.' With a well-trained beast, ' a thick
cherry stick with a cross at the end of it,' in the
hands of a Bedouin, and, I am bound to believe,
in the valiant Major's, will work wonders, but
not in yours, madam, nor in mine."

" The frequented routes in the desert, wherever
the soil is not too hard to receive or too soft per-
manently to retain impressions, are furrowed
with paths which may have been thousands of
years in wearing. In the Sinaitic peninsula,
where, except on the Hadj, a great pilgrim route,
the caravans are usually small, there are (in the
narrower passes excepted) in general from fifteen
to twenty of these shallow paths worn smooth
in the hard gravel and among the loose stones.
They are fifteen or eighteen inches wide, and

THE CARAVAN. 139

three, four, or more deep, and, though occasion-
ally intersecting, running in the main parallel to
each other at the distance of two or three yards
apart. An Arabian poem, older than the time of
Mohammed, compares these paths to the stripes
of a parti-colored cloak ; and the Arabian trav-
eller of the present day finds the same resem-
blance between the face of the desert and the
' many-colored coat ' of its more opulent inhabi-
tants. In these paths, the camels walk usually
pretty nearly abreast if not too numerous, and
those which have been bred together are inclined
to keep near each other. Where there is pastur-
age, they scatter widely, and a company of fifty
camels in a broad wady will frequently extend
themselves to a front of a mile or more. They
are however very reluctant to lose sight of the
main body, and, as has been before noticed, it is
difficult to stop one of these animals before the
time of encamping, and while the rest of the
caravan is upon the march. Notwithstanding
this gregarious propensity, it is not easy to keep
two camels in a caravan side by side, so as to
allow much conversation between their riders.
Some difference in gait, the temptations of a
camel-thorn or a thistle, or the crowding of other
animals, are constantly interfering to break up
your tete-d-tete, and you finally surrender your-
self to a silence well befitting the solitude and

140 THE CAMEL.

the solemn aspect of nature around you. The
regular and noiseless tread of the camel, and the
faint rustling of the sand, as it rolls back to the
cavity left by the foot of the animal, shed a
drowsy influence on your reveries ; your day-
dreams melt into slumberous visions ; you waver
in your seat, and it is rather an instinctive impulse
than a conscious effort, that braces you in your
saddle, aild saves you from a disastrous fall."

The Arabs habitually travel much by night,
and this not, as has been supposed, for the sake
of the guidance of the stars, which they seldom
need, but partly to avoid the greater heat of the
day, and more especially to allow the camel,
which never feeds by night, the daylight for
gathering his food. By travelling a part of the
night, too, they can make a long march, and yet
arrive at the proposed station by daylight, and
thus avoid the inconvenience of pitching the
camp, collecting fuel and water, and cooking
their evening meal, in the dark. It is common
to start from midnight to two o'clock, and to
march, without halting, ten, fifteen, or sometimes
twenty hours, after which the camp is formed ;
and if it is not yet dark, the camels are turned
out to graze till sunset, when they return to the
camp, are hobbled, by tying up one of the folded
fore legs, and ruminate and sleep to the hour of
departure. Although so long a day's journey

THE CARAVAN. 141

without pause is fatiguing to the rider, yet, ex-
cept with light dromedaries, experience is in
favor of the practice. To halt without unload-
ing the camels would afford them no relief, but
fatigue them the more by practically leng-thening
their day's work ; and if they are unloaded and
allowed to wander in search of food, the time
lost in collecting them and rearranging their bur-
dens would bring the caravan too late to the
camping-ground. Where, however, the party,
as is the case with military expeditions of a few
days' length, is unaccompanied by burden cam-
els, and the dromedaries are loaded with only
the equipage, water, and provisions of their
riders, the hours of travel and repose can, with-
out inconvenience, be arranged and varied to suit
the exigencies of the occasion.

The following account of the organization of
a caravan, and the every-day incidents of desert
travel, is introduced from the unpublished jour-
nal, before referred to, not as possessing special
merit, but as containing some useful hints for
persons about to undertake excursions of that
character.

" If you have well and diligently perused and
digested my first number, reader, you are now
possessed of some tithe of my painfully gathered
stock of learning concerning the camel, and if you
will go along with me in my somewhat devious
9

142 THE CAMEL.

wanderings, I will use with you as much famil-
iarity as is good betwixt teacher and pupil, and
will incidentally impart to you, with other pleas-
ant and profitable knowledges, such store of
further information on that topic, that, among
people who know no better, you shall come at
last to be thought very nearly as wise as your
master.

" According to my ' unheedful vow,' I am
now to introduce you to the Desert and the Be-
douins ; but before I proceed to describe the
wilderness and its inhabitants, it is fit that I
convey you fairly into the midst of them ; and
therefore we will first organize our caravan, and
then mount our dromedaries and pace forth a
day's journey into the waste, after which we
will sit cosily down together, compare notes,
and draw up a description of the sights and
sounds which have struck most strangely upon
our inexperienced eye and ear.

" Having engaged your ' guide, philosopher,
and friend,' the dragoman, your next business
is, with the aid of that personage and the con-
sul, to contract with some potent sheikh for the
safe and convenient conveyance of yourself and
your luggage through the territory of his tribe ^ —
mark that ; for without special license, hard to be
obtained, he can go no further ; and when he has
set you down at the end of his tether, you must

THE CAKAVAN. 143

make the best bargain you can with the next
sheikh ; or, if he proves too hard a customer for
you, you must (many as pretty a man as you
hath done it before you) e'en turn back again
the way you came. The transportation of Eu-
ropean travellers is a source of great profit to
the Arabs, and every tribe jealously reserves to
itself the exclusive right to this lucrative em-
ployment within its own limits. The sheikhs
not unfrequently undertake to smuggle caravans
across each other's territories, but if detected in
the attempt, they are sure to be resisted unto
blood ; and it is not above three or four years
since a sheikh, who was thus breaking his neigh-
bour's close, with a company of English travel-
lers, between Mount Sinai and Akaba, being
met by a party of the offended tribe, was led
aside into a thicket and butchered on the spot.
On these occasions, violence is seldom offered to
the traveller, unless he is foolish enough to pro-
voke it, but he is exposed to much annoyance
and delay, and his effects are likely to be roughly
handled in the melee.

" But let us come back to our contract. Your
Arab sheikh, though a gentleman of an ancient
house, is a great adept at driving a bargain, and
during the operation, he imbibes (at the cost of
his customer) a monstrous quantity of coffee
and tobacco smoke, much in the same way, and

144 THE CAMEL.

for the same purpose, as a Yankee ' whittles a
stick' in swapping horses. You must draw
your contract as carefully as with an Italian
vetturino ; and you may be very sm-e that if in
the course of your journey you ask any deviation
from the route, delay, or other indulgence ' not
i' the bond,' you will have a good round price to
pay for it. Upon concluding the bargain, you
usually pay a part of the sum stipulated, in ad-
vance, and when at the end of your journey the
sheikh comes to your tent to make his last
salaam and receive your final compliments, he
will again remind you of your old friend the
vetturino, by a request for a teskereh^ (Hibernice,
' character,') and a very significant hint, that he
cannot believe you sincere in the expression of
your satisfaction with his services and attentions,
unless you seal your testimony with a back-
sheesh,

" You are now to procure your tents and other
camp equipage and travelling gear, as well as
your supplies, and, thanks to English love of
comfort, you will find in all the great towns in
the vicinity of the Desert every facility for mak-
ing the journey not only conveniently but lux-
uriously. English travellers have introduced a
multitude of portable contrivances in the way
of camp-furniture, and by the aid of these and
with due foresight in laying in your stores, you

THE CARAVAN. 145

may spend a few weeks in the Desert with
as little of real privation or discomfort of any
sort, as in ordinary travelling in America or Eu-
rope. In general, the Desert furnishes no supplies,
except now and then a sheep at an exorbitant
price, or, if you are a sportsman, occasionally a
gazelle, a mountain goat, (beden,) a hare, or a
partridge ; but at Suez, Mount Sinai, Akaba, and
the Oases, you find bread, coffee, eggs, Arab
cheese, and sometimes vegetables. The necessity
of taking along with you these stores, as well as
your camp equipage and cooking utensils, and a
supply of water for several days' journey, obliges
you to engage a great many camels, and you will
be fortunate if you are not made to pay for a
considerably larger number than are really needed
for the purpose. The loads are seldom weighed,
and the superior knowledge of the Arab as to
the burden his camel really ought to carry gives
him an advantage over the traveller, which it is
pretty difficult to resist.

" Your luggage and stores being at last packed
in trunks, canteen-boxes, sacks, and palm-leaf
crates, or cafasses, and with much vehement al-
tercation, shrill shouting, and passionate gesticu-
lation of the Bedouins, infinite growling of their
blatant beasts, and alternate coaxing and scold-
ing of your dragoman, fairly loaded and secured
with ropes and netting, you must look to your

146 THE CAMEL.

dromedary, and see that your saddle and ap-
purtenances are arranged to your liking ; and here
let me caution you to be sure that every con-
venience you can need in the course of the day's
journey is hung to your saddle-pegs or stored
in the ample travelling-bags beneath you. Of
these conveniences, one of the most indispens-
able is the zemzemeeli^ or leather water-bottle.
This is a neatly made water-vessel, usually of
Russia leather, holding a couple of quarts, with
a large neck and a wooden stopper. It is very
important, that both this and the water casks
and water skins, should have been soaked for
several days, and often filled and emptied, both
to make them tight and to take out a little of the
raw taste of the wood and leather. The zemze-
meeh is hung by a strap and hook to the saddle-
peg, and as some of the water escapes by ex-
udation through the pores of the leather, the
evaporation cools the contents, upon the same
principle as in the porous earthen jars, so ex-
tensively used in Egypt and other hot countries.
The zemzemeeh should always be hung on the
shady side of the camel, and well sheltered by
the carpets or other coverings of your saddle,
and with these precautions, the water will be
cool enough in the hottest weather, though it
must be confessed, that it will always taste of the
leather, at least as strongly as Sancho Panza's

THE CARAVAN. 147

grandfather's wine did of iron and goat's skin,
from the little key and its thong, that had been
dropped into the hogshead. As to the use of
the water-bottle, I have but two pieces of advice
to give you. One is to keep it out of the way
of the Arabs, who will seize every opportunity
to drain it, and the other is to have recourse to it
as sparingly as possible while on the march.^
The habit of frequent indulgence in this respect
provokes thirst, and a little self-denial at the be-
ginning will save you a good deal of suffering
afterwards, when your stock of water is spoiled
or exhausted. For water skins and water bottles,
india rubber (provided you don't object to a spice
of brimstone) is a better material than leather,
though the zemzemeeh^ on account of the tran-
spiration, is cooler, but you will find no ' elastics '
in the East, and must procure your receptacles
of the Neptunian fluid from one of the great
rival Vulcanists, Day or Goodyear, before leaving
home."

^ Major Denham made it a rule never to drink at all be-
tween sunrise and sunset, but at night he drank " as much
water as he could swallow." The Arabs do not abstain upon
the march, but are constantly drinking through the day.
But " this is merely the improvidence and thoughtlessness of
savages, and argues nothing for the practice.

CHAPTER XIY.

THE CARAVAN, CONTINUED.

" But I had forgotten to give you some ad-
vice respecting your travelling garb. Let us re-
pair this omission before we mount our drome-
daries and plunge into the wilderness. The
night is generally cool, often even cold, in the
desert, and for the early morning you will re-
quire a sufficient supply of warm v^rrappages,
though for the rest of the day, except, of course,
in the winter, thin summer clothing only is nec-
essary. The most difficult point is to defend the
head against the powerful rays of the sun, and
to protect the face and lips from the parching
wind. The Bedouins usually wear only a close
fitting skull-cap, and a large silk handkerchief,
called the kefeeyeh. The kefeeyeh is woven in
broad stripes, yellow and red being the favorite
colors, and with a very long, but thin, fringe.
It is folded shawl-wise, and worn over the cap,
the long folded edge in front. This edge is
brought very far forward, a braided or twisted
woollen band, sometimes very tastefully fash-

THE CARAVAN. 149

ioned, passes around the head and confines the
handkerchief, and the corners hang free, or are
gathered about the neck. This is a very toler-
able protection for the face, but Europeans
would find it insufficient for the crown, and in
the heat of the day, the Arab himself very often
wraps his head in the folds of an ample tur-
ban, a thick woollen blanket, or the skirt of his
bernoos^ or cloak. I found the East Indian pith
hat, with a quilted cotton cover, and when the
long narrow cotton shawl, called kushack in
Egypt, thrown over it in thick folds, gathered
about the neck, and knotted under the chin, the
best head-gear. The kushack both prevents
the light hat from blowing off", and effectually
shields the head, face, and lips from sun and
wind ; and this plan seemed to me much pre-
ferable to any European head-dress, because it
relieves you from that great annoyance, the
necessity of carrying and looking after a heavy
umbrella. You, reader, I have every reason to
believe, are a very nice person, and therefore,
remembering that the washerwoman is not yet
abroad in the desert, you will, I trust, take
along with you good store of clean linen, and
listen not at all to the authority or the example
of the author of the ' Hastily gobbled up Crud-
ities,' who held him guilty of sinful superfluity
that ' had more suits or shirts than bodies,' or

150 THE CAMEL.

of the nasty Frenchman Labordc, who allows
you 'three shirts' for a two months' trip, and
even found one quite sufficient for himself.
Many of the desert plateaus lie at a consider-
able elevation, and the nights and mornings are
sometimes very cool, even in summer. A good
bernoos, or poncho, or other convenient wrapras-
cal is therefore no superfluity, and in general
the Mississippi summer costume (shirt, bowie-
knife, revolver and spurs,) is not to be affected.
The violent motion of the camel requires free-
dom of habiliment, and all your vesture should
be wide. Fm*ther, go not thinly shod. The
edge of the sandstone is sharper than a ser-
pent's tooth, and thick soles are de rigueur.
Your shaving apparatus you may leave behind
altogether. Not that I approve beard and mus-
tache, but they are a protection against the
scorching sun, and besides, two or three shaves
of a sandy beard will hack the edge of your
razor like Falstafl^'s sword, and thereafter shav-
ing is impossible. I would fain add some
special counsels touching ladies' apparel, but
though I have answered to the name of ' Ben-
edick, the married man,' more years than I care
to confess in this presence, and though my
faithful Joan hath interspersed her curtain lec-
tures to her Darby, with sundry prelections on
this very topic, yet, as a man may say, I have

THE CAKAVAN. 151

profited nothing by them, and do profess a re-
spectful ignorance of the whole subject to this
day, not knowing the difference between a gore
and a gusset. Nathless, I comfort myself with
the consideration, that feminine ingenuity pass-
eth all masculine imagination, and I do in no-
wise doubt, that these few hints, with a repeti-
tion of a former suggestion, that you, madam,
may find it convenient to ride a chevcmchons,
will enable you to devise a garb at once grace-
ful, durable, and commodious, beyond anything
which the subtlest man-milliner could compose.

" But the dragoman is sounding ' boot and
saddle,' after his fashion, our camels are laden,
our dromedaries are waiting, not indeed champ-
ing the bit and pawing the ground like fiery
coursers, but with half-shut eye lazily ' chewing
the cud of sweet and bitter fancy.' Let us
mount our ungainly steeds and away to the
desert.

" The camel, as every body knows, kneels to
receive his load and his rider, and the burden he
can rise with is said to be the measure of what
he is able to carry. The Bedouins often climb
to the saddle, without bringing the camel to his
knees or even stopping him, by putting one foot
on the callus of the knee, and so clambering up
by the neck and shoulder, but I recommend no
such experiments to you. You will find mount-

152 THE CAMEL.

ing in the ordinary way ticklish enough in the
beginning, and you run considerable risk at first
of going off by a very illogical, ci priori^ or d
posteriori movement, as the animal rises. It is
a * bad eminence ' to fall from, and until you
have had considerable practice in this sort of
slack-rope exercise, it is good to hold fast by the
saddle-pins both fore and aft, while the drome-
dary is unfolding his joints, and working his
traverse upwards. Further, see that your at-
tendant keeps one foot on your camel's knee
until you are well posited and balanced ; for he
is apt to start up on feeling the weight of his
rider, and in this case you may very likely go
up on one side and come down on the other.
When all is ready, you give the signal, your
Arab releases the camel, a sudden jerk from be-
hind pitches you upon the pommel as he raises
his haunches, (for, as we told you before, he
comes up stern foremost,) and then a swell
from the stem throws you aft, and so on, zig-
zag, until he is fairly up, when, after a little
more rolling, while he is poising and steadying,
backing and filling, and getting his feet into
marching order, he steps off", and you are at last
under way, on your quest for Mesopotamia,
Arabia Petraea, or the Oasis of Jupiter Am-
mon.

" Your first day is every where a dies non,

THE CAEAVAN. 153

and reason good. It takes many hours to col-
lect the camels and their drivers for the first
time, and there is many a dispute to settle as to
whether Achmed's or Musa's camel shall carry
this or that parcel of luggage ; and then, as
many things are sure to be forgotten on start-
ing, it is good to lodge the first night within
hail of your point of departure, so that things
missing may be brought out of limbo, and new-
found wants supplied from town without too
much loss of time. Your tent and camp equip-
age have been sent out to the appointed station
before you, and on arriving, after an hour's ride,
you find all things in order, so that this time you
do not witness the pitching of the camp, and
your real experience of desert life does not be-
gin till to-morrow.

" Your first night under canvas passes very
comfortably, disturbed by nothing but the quar-
rels of the Arabs about the division of the ex-
pected profits, or perhaps some slight rustling
under your pillow or about your bed, ominously
like the crawling of a scorpion or the wriggle
of a snake. You will wisely have ordered
breakfast to be ready as early as you can see to
eat it, (and if ^ by the misty moonbeams' strug-
gling light,' or by 'lanterns dimly burning,' so
much the better,) in order that you may start in
time to reach your next station before the hot-

154 THE CAMEL.

test hours of the day. The preparing and par-
taking of breakfast, breaking up the camp,
packing the luggage and loading the camels,
consumes about two hours, and therefore if you
mean to be off, ere

Phibbus' car
Doth shine from far,

you must stir and condamare vasa betimes.

" As the camel regularly is fed only at night,
he is impatient for his morning's meal, which
he picks up for himself from the shrubs that dot
the desert, and takes, as hypocritical old Sen-
eca pretends (falsely, I doubt,) he did his, sine
mensa. Each animal makes off as soon as he
is loaded, and as the loads frequently require to
be re-secured or otherwise changed, and the
camels scatter widely in search of food, it is
some time before the caravan is collected, and
steadily advancing in regular order.

" When the country is safe, and the order of
march fairly established, and all is going on
smoothly, the sheikhs and others who have
dromedaries, often pace ahead of the caravan,
in order to gain time for a cup of coffee and a
pipe, or an hour's nap in the shade of an acacia
or a manna bush, which they may very well do,
as the speed of the dromedary is nearly double
that of the ordinary burden camel. I earnestly
advise you not to stop the caravan for the fool-

THE CARAVAN. 155

ish purpose of lunching, or to make any halt in
the course of the day's march, except such as
you can snatch in the way I have just men-
tioned. It is fair to admit, that the majority of
my fellow-travellers are against me on this point,
but nHinporte^ wisdom is better than numbers.
Hear my reasons ; those of mine opponents I
need not give. Why should I perplex you ?

" For mere lunching, (faugh ! I hate the
word,) if lunch you must, an orange or two, a
biscuit, a morsel of bread, a bunch of dried figs,
dates, apricots, or such other pretty little tiny
kickshaws, as you can take in your saddle-bags,
and munch on your camel, are abundantly suf-
ficient, and as for resting, I know no better way
than now and then to exchange your camel for
that ' horse with ten toes,' upon which, accord-
ing to old Fuller, Tom Coryate, memorable for
the introduction of forks into England, enter-
prised his journey to India. To walking, how-
ever, there is sometimes a pretty serious objec-
tion, the provocation of increased thirst, namely.
When you are travelling in hot weather, and
your supply of water is low or spoiled, this dif-
ficulty becomes nearly insurmountable, and if
there be an absolute necessity for stopping, you
must prick ahead and gain time, or lag in the
rear. A general halt of the caravan is attended
with great inconvenience. Barely stopping,

156 THE CAMEL.

without unloading, affords no relief to the
camels. On the contrary, it lengthens their
day's journey, and of course their fatigue, brings
them late to the evening station, and deprives
them of the necessary time for feeding and rest.
In these annoyances your servants, too, share.
They have a hard day's labor to perform, after
yours is at an end. They assist in pitching the
camp, and unloading the dromedaries. They
make your beds, arrange your furniture, attend
to your numerous wants, gather fuel, prepare
and serve up your dinner, and make the neces-
sary arrangements for an early breakfast, after
all which they take their own repast, and make
their humble preparations for a repose, which
must be interrupted before nature is half re-
freshed. Besides this, a delay of a couple of
hours, either compels you to travel during the
hottest part of the day, or, if your halt extends
beyond this, you do not reach your camp until
evening, and then your dinner comes at an
hour when you ought to be seeking in sleep
a renewal of strength for the fatigues of the
morrow." " When the way is plain, or in moon-
light nights, the Arabs sleep through the heat
of the day, and travel a large part of the night ;
but this inversion of the order of nature con-
duces little to the health or comfort of Euro-
peans and Americans, who like to take their

THE CARAVAN. 157

sleep cool ; and besides, it defeats in a measure
one great object of your journey, the view 'of
the wonderful scenery of the Desert.

" The usual length of a day's march is from
eight to twelve hours, and the stations are
selected with reference to the convenience of
obtaining fodder, water, and fuel. The Arabs
prefer the regular and familiar places of encamp-
ment, but they are objectionable on account of
the vermin which frequent them, and the trav-
eller should see that his tent is pitched on
ground that does not show the ' one spot of
ashen black,' the usual sign of recent occu-
pation.

" Towards the close of the march, the sheikhs
and other experienced travellers hasten on in
advance of the caravan, to select the ground for
the camp, and when a level spot is found spa-
cious enough to accommodate the tents and
camels, and within convenient distance of some
scattering thicket of shrubs, which promises
wood for the fire, and feed for the beasts, the
leading sheikh dismounts and plants his spear.
The camels seem to understand this manoeuvre,
and when they come in sight of the spear, and
their brethren kneeling around it, they quicken
their pace, and speedily join the weary group.
As the camels come up, they are made to kneel,
unloaded, and turned out to feed. Carpets and
10

158 THE CAMEL.

cushions are spread for the traveller in the
scanty shade of some thinly leafed shrub, the
tents of the Franks (for the Arabs use none ex-
cept in their stationary camps) are unpacked
and pitched, their beds, camp-stools, and other
conveniences are duly disposed, dry wood is
gathered, fires and pipes are lighted, and coffee,
(probably stolen from your own stores,) fre-
quently highly flavoured with cloves or other
pungent spices, is politely sent you by the prin-
cipal sheikh of the caravan, and then come the
cookery, the dinner, and the preparations for the
night.

" When the camels return from feeding, which
is towards sunset, they are made to lie down
about the tents, and generally secured by tying
up one of the fore legs. The Arabs sit, smoke,
and talk awhile around the fire, and then, wrap-
ping up in then* blankets or tattered cloaks,
they stretch themselves on the gi'ound and
compose themselves to sleep. The sheikhs fare
no better than their followers, except that they
carry a carpet or two, a more liberal supply of
clothing, and some other trifling conveniences
which the common Bedouins cannot afford.
Bread is almost the sole diet of the Arabs, when
travelling, but the honoratiores among them are
very apt to take the liberty of intruding them-
selves upon the hospitality of your poor ser-

THE CARAVAN. 159

vants, as they are consuming the relics of your
repast, and in this case they are pretty sure to
secure to themselves the lion's share. It is al-
ways stipulated that the Arabs shall furnish
their own food and water, but they rarely pro-
vide themselves with a sufficient supply of either ;
and as they are bold, persevering, and impor-
tunate beggars, it is very difficult to protect
your stores against their rapacity.

" And now that we have got well through
our first day in the Desert, and are fairly out of
sight of land, let me sit down on the shady side
of the tent, and while our tardy dinner is pre-
paring, talk over the experiences of the day, and
write up our journals. And, here let me impress
on the present reader, and I hope future trav-
eller, the extreme importance of keeping a most
full and minute record of every observation and
every noteworthy occurrence. I have heard and
read a great deal in my time on memories ; and
been told how, forsooth, people who can't read
and write, and so make no notes, and don't
relax their memorial muscles by using artificial
supports, and leaning on broken reeds of mem-
orandum books and lead pencils, have much
more retentive memories than those who avail
themselves of such unnatural substitutes. Be-
lieve me, reader, 'tis all moonshine. You remem-
ber no whit the worse, and you observe vastly

160 THE CAMEL.

better, for the practice of full, clear, and accurate
description. In travelling in strange lands,
where all — nature, art, man — is new, the con-
tinual succession of novel objects is unfavorable
for obtaining distinct and above all permanent
impressions, and the most tenacious memory-
can hope to retain but a small proportion of the
images received. It is wonderful how the pe-
rusal of a good book of travels over the same
ground, or a glance at your journal, if reasona-
bly full, will refresh and revive the fading pic-
tures, which it has cost you so much time and
toil to obtain, and scarcely any sacrifice is too
great to secure an object so important. Let no
excuse of lassitude, no impatience of the incon-
veniences of writing on your knee in the open
air, with insects buzzing about your ears, and the
wind scattering your papers and sanding your
page before it is filled, deter you from conscien-
tiously setting down every thing that has struck
you during the day as worthy of being seen.
Trust nothing to the memory. Make no vague
entries, such as ' fine scenery after sunrise,' ^ re-
markable rock far off to the right,' ' singular ap-
pearance in the sky this morning,' and so forth,
foolishly imagining that you will remember the
details, and have the energy to write them out
to-morrow. Making a matter ' the order of the
day, for to-morrow, amounts, in congressional

THE CARAVAN. 161

language and practice, to indefinite postpone-
ment. You will find, too late, that it has the
same signification in your itinerant vocabulary.
I once heard a motion to that effect objected to
by a ' new member,' on the ground that to-mor-
row was Sunday. In your case, there is a more
valid exception. To-morrow will bring with it
new observations to record, new inconveniences
to surmount, new weariness to combat, and what
is not worth securing to-day will have even less
value to-morrow.

" Let us, then, resolutely make a clean breast
of it, and faithfully record the impressions of the
day; and depend upon it, both we and the world
shall be the wiser for it."

CHAPTER XV.

NUMBERS OF THE CAMEL — ORIENTAL EXAGGERATION.

The wealth of all pastoral tribes consists in
their cattle, and as in the desert the camel con-
tributes in a larger share to supply the wants
of the household than any other animal, he is
naturally the measure of poverty and affluence.
The number of camels required to maintain
their possessor in comfort is by no means large.
With ten or fewer camels, says Chesney, an
Arab is poor ; with thirty or forty, in easy cir-
cumstances ; with sixty, rich. Among civilized
nations the possession of land is in general a
condition precedent to the acquisition of flocks,
but in the desert, where all the soil within the
purlieus of the tribe is common property, the
youth who is ambitious of rising in the world
need give himself no trouble to become a free-
holder. Of late years, the utflity, price, and
profits of the camel, in afl the deserts bordering
upon the Mediterranean, have greatly increased,
from the demand for his services in transporting

NUMBERS OF THE CAMEL. 163

goods between Cairo and Suez, and travellers
from Egypt to Palestine, as well as in the rapidly-
extending commerce between the North African
seaports and central Africa. These varied
sources of gain are no doubt more than an
equivalent for the loss sustained by the reduced
numbers of the pilgrim caravans to Mecca, for
though as many camels are not now at any one
time required, yet the demand extends through
the year, and the prices paid for conveyance
and transportation are much higher than they
formerly were.

The multiplication of the camels possessed
by a sheikh or a tribe, finds natural limits and
checks in the difficulty of procuring an adequate
supply of fodder for more than a certain number,
within the territory of the tribe, and of protect-
ing the animals against the thieves who are
always lurking about the frontier to pick up
estrays, or to make a bold dash and drive off a
herd. The desert camels are branded, usually
oh the neck and left shoulder, every tribe and
every family having its own mark, not so much
to enable the owner to recognize a beast which
may have been eloigned from him, and which
he knows by natural tokens as well as if it were
his child, but to serve as an evidence of property
by which he may establish his rights, to the sat-
isfaction of others.

164 THE CAMEL.

Raids and forays, for the purpose of stealing
horses and camels, are nowise disreputable
among the Arabs, and enterprising adventurers
do not always inquire very nicely, whether their
own tribe and that on which they propose to
make a descent are technically at peace, or ac-
cording to the jus g-entium in such a state of
hostility, that reprisals for old offences or new
provocations may be justified. The moss troop-
ers, if observed, are of course resisted, and these
filibustering expeditions, and the blood-feuds
which grow out of them, are a never-ending
cause of war between the Bedouin tribes.

The harmonizing effects of commerce are
very plainly seen in all the relations between the
Bedouins and Europeans. The Arab still thinks,
no doubt, with Aym.erigot Marcel, that " to pille
and to robbe is a fayre and goode lyfe, alle
thynges considered," yet as a regular vocation,
he finds it not so safe, or, in the long run, so
profitable, to plunder Franks as to pilot them
through the desert. There have, accordingly,
been but few recent instances of open violence
to travellers, in any part of the East where
Arabs are often brought into contact with
Europeans, although it must be confessed that
cases of pilfering are not altogether so rare, and
the Bedouins themselves not unfrequently dis-
pute, sword in hand, the possession of the travel-

NUMBERS OF THE CAMEL. 165

ler. I borrow from the often quoted journal the
following description of one of these quarrels : —
" The Arabs were almost constantly at logger-
heads among themselves. Their wars were
chiefly of words, and it is incredible what a
power of lungs they will exhibit on a question
of two pence. While with them, we had among
our own Bedouins, besides several minor and
more informal set-tos and one general meUe in
which the belligerents did little but push each
other about, one regular duello^ dans les formes,
with swords. The dispute was about furnishing
camels for the Hawajees, but I did not inquu-e
into the precise point of difference. Why should
I pester myself with the quarrels of Ethnicks ?
Nevertheless, I felt a good deal of interest in the
result. I shall tell you why. One of the com-
batants had a short-bladed sword, true Damas-
cus, with a chased silver hilt, which I had in
vain tempted him to sell. But no, it had been
his father's, and his father's, and so on back to
Adnan, from whom all Bedouins are descended.
I hoped that, in a certain event, his adminis-
trator would be less scrupulous. The champi-
ons were placed in the centre of a ring of Arabs,
and when all was ready, ' winked and held out
their cold iron.' After a little preliminary flour-
ishing, they went at their good work in earnest.
They poked, they cut, they thrust, and they

166 THE CAMEL.

parried, in tierce, in carte, and in sundry other
curves not hitherto investigated by mathemati-
cians, or the masters of the noble science of
defence, until my friend of the short sword re-
ceived a sufficient flesh wound in the leg, (alas !
not mortal,) whereupon certain officious and
pragmatical reformers then and there present in-
terfered, and separated the doughty paladins, to
the great scandal of sundry old Bedouins of the
camp, who, one and all, declared that this un-
called for intervention was a most unwarranta-
ble infraction of the ancient laws of honorable
warfare, as understood and practised from time
immemorial among the sons of Ishmael."

In spite of the apparent difficulty of procur-
ing sustenance for large herds in parched cli-
mates and barren soils, the number of camels
employed by the governments and the popula-
tion of Egypt and other Mussulman countries,
is incredibly great, and the wandering tribes
who occupy regions of comparatively abundant
pasturage, possess vast herds of them. On the
road between Cairo and Suez you meet many
hundreds every day, and the whole Hadj route
from Suez to Mecca is strown with their skele-
tons. I was told at Osioot, that a caravan from
Sennaar, which had lately arrived at that place,
consisted of six thousand camels. The Mecca
pilgrim caravan from Cairo, though in these

OKIENTAL EXAGGERATION. 167

days of waning faith comparatively insignifi-
cant, is said formerly to have numbered a hun-
dred thousand. I was assured at Akaba that
the famous Sheikh Hussein, chief of the Alo-
ween, possessed not less than eight thousand ;
but though the wants of the pilgrims at the an-
nual visit to Mecca, when the services of this
eminent personage are in " honorable request,"
must furnish employment for a great number of
these animals, I cannot but suspect that this
estimate is much too liberal. How a caravan of
one hundred thousand camels could find pastur-
age in any part of the Arabian desert it is not
easy to comprehend ; and we can hardly suppose
that, on leaving Cairo, the pilgrims carried with
them a stock of provender for forty -five days,
even making all due allowance for the supplies
provided by the public authorities and private
speculators at the various stations on the route.
The vast armies of half-civilized nations in
ancient times, and of the crusaders in the middle
ages, that made long campaigns through barren
or deserted countries, without any commissariat
or other known source of supply, indeed make
the Arab accounts of great caravans more credi-
ble, if not quite explicable; but after all, some-
thing must doubtless be allowed for the Oriental
propensity to deal very loosely with numbers
and quantities. This habit renders it a matter

168 THE CAMEL.

of extreme difficulty to collect reliable statistical
information in Eastern countries. In fact, al-
though with us the Arabic numerals have become
a symbol of certainty, yet a traveller among
Orientals, and especially the Bedouins, soon
finds, that nothing is so uncertain as Arabic
numbers. I attempted in Egypt to ascertain
from the most intelligent native sources, the
average annual produce of the date palm. The
reader will judge of the value of my statistics
on this point, when he is told that the estimates
of experienced and apparently intelligent persons
varied from fifty or sixty to seven hundred
pounds. At Mount Sinai, you are told that the
rugged staircase by which you climb Jabel
Moosa, consists of fifteen thousand steps, and
many European travellers have repeated this
foolish story, without stopping to consider that
as the difference of level between the convent
and the peak is scarcely two thousand feet, the
rise of the steps would be but an inch and a
half. The rooms in the great Armenian convent
at Jerusalem are popularly stated at fifteen
thousand, certainly fifty times the true number.
Every day's experience in the East will furnish
the traveller with similar instances of absurd
exaggeration. It is partly, perhaps, to the char-
acteristic vagueness of perception among the
Orientals, and the want of familiarity with nu-

OEIENTAL EXAGGEEATION. 169

merical combinations, that we are to ascribe this
uncertainty. Besides, there are scarcely any
authorized and exact standards of value, weight,
or measure, and the habits of Eastern life in
general present less frequent occasion for precise
estimation than in European countries. It is,
therefore, quite natural that the people should
have very loose notions of relative magnitudes,
and should accordingly use numbers much at
random. The pride of an Oriental seldom per-
mits him to admit ignorance. He will always
lie or guess rather than avow inability to answer
any question, and his error is very sure to lie in
the way of multiplication. But after all these
allowances are made, it will still be found that
an innate and habitual disregard of the truth is
eminently characteristic of the Oriental mind,
■ Christian and pagan alike, and one must have
known the Levant to be able to conceive how
readily persons intelligent and otherwise respect-
able will prefer a lie to the truth, when the
slightest advantage is to be gained by the use of
a falsehood.

CHAPTER XVI.

GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE OF THE CAMEL.

The camel, as we have already seen, exists
and thrives through a wide range of climates,
and under a great variety of conditions. It
does not appear that any temperature is too
high for the one-humped species. Southern
Ai'abia, where he is found in great perfection, is
one of the hottest countries on the globe, and
the only obstacle to his diffusion through the
whole extent of the equatorial regions, is the
dampness of many tropical climates. He seems
entirely indifferent to the fiercest heats of an
African sun. I have often watched his habits
in this respect in the desert, and though we
sometimes encamped near palms and other
trees, or where he could readily have found a
shelter in the cool shadow of a rock, I could
never discover that, even under the most glar-
ing light and scorching heat, he at all preferred
the shade to the sun.

But in these same climates, he is exposed to
a very considerable degree of cold. The noc-

GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE OF THE CAMEL. 171

turnal radiation under the clear sky of the
Libyan desert often reduces the temperature
to the freezing point. In latitude 25® N., Lyon
saw the thermometer fall to 26*^. The mercury
was below 32^ several mornings in succession,
ice formed half an inch in thickness, and the
water-skins were frozen. In the autumn of
1850, it was so cold between Korasko and
Khartum on the Nile, that caravans were una-
ble to move for two or three days ; Denham and
Clapperton experienced hard frosts in latitude
13® N., but we do not learn that the camels of
the countiy were in any of these instances se-
riously injured by this severe weather. Other
breeds of the same species support far greater
degrees of cold without much apparent suffer-
ing. • The one-humped camel abounds in con-
junction with the Bactrian throughout the
immediate basin of the Caspian and the Sea
of Azoff, and far to the east under the same
parallel. In this latitude the winters are of
great severity, and according to Fraser, travel-
lers sometimes perish of cold even in the vicin-
ity of Teheran. The Calmucks, who possess
great numbers of both species, spend their sum-
mers in higher latitudes, migrate in autumn to
the south of 50® N. L.,i and pass the winter on

1 This migration finds its counterpart in central Africa,
where the camel moves northwards from the highlands to

172 THE CAMEL.

the lower Volga and the steppes near the Cas-
pian, where there is an abundance of reeds and
rushes to serve as fodder for their cattle during
the cold season.

Beyond the steppes inhabited by the Cal-
mucks, the Arabian camel is succeeded exclu-
sively by the Bactrian,^ and some of the septs
of that tribe, as for example those with whom
Bergman n sojourned and wandered, possess
only the latter species. It is only in the coldest
climates inhabited by the Bactrian, that he re-
quires any protection against the rigors of win-
ter. Georgi states that, in the vicinity of Lake
Baikal, the camel is sewed up in coarse woollen
cloth during the extremest cold, but even here
he receives no fodder from his master, but is
left to shift for himself by browsing on the
, twigs of the birch, the wild plum, the Siberian
pine, and the few shrubs that peep out through
the snows. On the plains of the Irtysch he
thrives extremely well, in spite of the piercing

the Sahara on the approach of the rainy season, with the
swarms of insects that accompany that period.

1 Although the Bactrian, as has been before observed, is
not bred in Arabia or in Africa, he is nevertheless known to
Arabic literature. Baron Hammer-Purgstall quotes from an
Arabic poem this couplet : —

Joints of the Bactrian did his table boast,
Choice fare and drink betrayed the generous host.

GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE OF THE CAMEL. 173

cold, and is strong enough to carry from three
to five riders. They are sewed up in felt cloths,
and large felts are stretched between the huts of
their masters, under which they gather for shel-
ter. Pallas observed the same custom among
the Calmucks, but Bergmann, who lived some
time among that people, says the felts are not
required for their protection against the cold,
but that they are merely a sort of housing for
the pack-saddle, which is used the whole year
through. They are less injuriously affected by
the severest winters, he observes, than the horse,
the ox, or the sheep, and they bear hunger and
thirst almost as well as the Arabian. Erman ^
says, under date of February 20, and with a
temperature of 25^ of Fahrenheit below zero,
" On the Chinese side, (at Kiachta,) we saw
seventy fine camels turned loose and feeding
on the frozen and withered grass. They fear the
severe winters of this climate as little as the
parching heat in the sand-steppes. The alter-
nation of thaw and frost alone is dangerous to
them. The sharp and brittle icy crust, which
forms under such circumstances upon the sur-
face of the snow, wounds their legs and feet, as
is elsewhere observed to be the case with the
stag and the roe."

' Reisen, ii. 154.
11

174 THE CAMEL.

So numerous is the camel in these frozen
reahns, that almost the whole commerce be-
tween Russia and China, by way of Kiachta, is
carried on by means of them ; and they trans-
port merchandise over the vast distance between
Orenburg on the Ural, and Petropawlowsk on
the peninsula of Kamtschatka. In the month
of October, Timkovski met on the desert of
Gobi, in latitude 46 '^, and at the height of
2,500 feet above the sea, a herd of 20,000 cam-
els ; the Russian expedition against Khiva and
Bokhara, in 1840, employed more than an equal
number ; and Berghaus estimates the number
of camels in European Russia at not less than
100,000.

Father Hue's lively narrative of his travels in
Tartary is full of similar proofs of the power of
the Bactrian to brave the icy frosts and chilling
blasts of that frigid region, and we may reason-
ably conclude that the camel is able to endure
the gi-eatest extremes of temperature known in
climates habitable by civilized man.

The range of countries through which the
camel is spread, has been greatly extended
within the historical period, and even within
comparatively recent times. I have already
alluded to the fact of his late introduction into
the African continent, where, although he can-
not be said to have been unknown, he certainly

GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE OF THE CAMEL. 1

io

did not come into general use earlier than the
third or fourth century of the Christian era.
The Asiatic Goths who made an irruption into
the valleys of the Dniester and Danube towards
the end of the fourth century, appear to have
brought both the Bactrian and the Arabian in
their train, as both are represented among the
spoil of the Goths on the triumphal column
erected by Arcadius at Constantinople, in honor
of the victory over that people won by his father
Theodosius, in the year 386. From the north-
ern shores of the Black Sea they spread very
gradually northwards until, having reached the
zone inhabited by the reindeer, they appear to
have met their natural limit in this direction.
They were introduced into Granada by the
Moors in the middle ages, and are still used in
that country. The Norman conquerors carried
them to the Canary Islands in the fifteenth cen-
tury, and the Turks to Cyprus somewhat later.
An unsuccessful attempt was made to natural-
ize them in Peru in the sixteenth century, and
with better success in Venezuela, where Hum-
boldt found them at the beginning of the pres-
ent century. At what period they were carried
to Tuscany is matter of dispute, but they have
bred there at least two hundred years, and it is
remarkable that they were not introduced into
the Persian provinces bordering on the Caspian,

176 THE CAMEL.

until the construction of roads through that
region by Shah Abbas, about the time of the
first colonization of our eastern States.^

His progress eastward from the two centres
where the Bactrian and the Arabian appear to
have respectively originated — the desert of Gobi
and the greater Arabian peninsula — has been
equally gradual, and it is only within the pres-
ent century that he has been introduced, though
not with encouraging success, into the damp
climate and tropical luxuriance of the islands of
the Indian Ocean.

That he will continue to spread, until he
finds a home in all thinly populated countries
with tropical or temperate climates, and such
conditions of soil as occur in his original birth-
places, there can be little doubt, and we may
therefore confidently expect his naturalization
in South Africa, Australia, the desert of Ata-
cama, Southern Chili and Buenos Ayres, and
om- own New Mexican and Californian territo-
ries.

1 Hanway and some other travellers have ascribed the
former rarity of the camel in the southern basin of the Cas-
pian to the abundance of boxwood, upon the foliage of
v/hich the animal greedily feeds, but which seldom fails to
prove fatal to him. Later observation has not confirmed
this opinion, nor is it known that any plant which he inclines
to eat is injurious to him.

CHAPTER XYII.

INTRODUCTION OF THE CAMEL INTO THE UNITED STATES.

The question of the practicability and ad-
vantages of introducing the camel into the
United States is a topic of much interest and
importance.

Among those who are practically familiar with
the habits and properties of the camel, and who
have studied the physical conditions of our terri-
tory west of the Mississippi, there is, I believe,
little or no difference of opinion on the subject ;
and I am persuaded that the ultimate success of
judicious and persevering effort is certain, and
will be attended with important advantages. At
the same time, it must not be concealed that, as
much depends on a point that nothing but ex-
perience can determine, — the selection, namely,
of the particular breeds best adapted to our
climate, soil, and other local conditions, — the
result of a first experiment is extremely un-
certain.

The question must be considered under two
aspects : the one regarding the camel as simply

178 THE CAMEL.

a beast of burden ; the other, his value as an
animal of war. But even if it is conceded,
which I by no means admit, that the organiza-
tion of a proper mounted dromedary corps is
impracticable or inexpedient, it does not, by any
means, follow that the camel may not be of
great value in the commissariat, and in all that
belongs to the mere movement of bodies of men,
as well as in the independent transportation of
military stores and all the munitions of war.

The first point to be discussed is the adapta-
tion of any variety of either species to the climate
and soil of any portion of our territory. So far
as mere extremes of temperature are concerned,
it is quite certain that we have nowhere, west of
the Mississippi, fiercer or more long-continued
heats, more parched deserts, or wastes more
destitute of vegetation, than those of the regions
where the Arabian camel is found in his highest
perfection ; and the Bactrian thrives in climates
as severe as even the coldest portion of our
northeastern territory.

There is, however, it must be admitted, one
point of difference between our general climate
and that of the eastern continent, which has an
unfavorable bearing on the question. I refer to
the greater moisture of our atmosphere and the
greater frequency of rains during the summer
season. In general, the countries where the

INTEODUCTION INTO THE UNITED STATES. 179

camel thrives have a proper dry season, little or
no rain falling during the summer months. But
to this rule there are exceptions. The valley of
the lower Danube has summer rains, and a very
wet autumn, winter, and spring; and many
northern Asiatic districts are subject to similar
climatic conditions. But the objection, what-
ever may be its force, seems to apply merely to
the proportion of the year during which the
animal can labor, and not to its influence upon
his constitution ; because, it appears that in the
cold and damp Russian provinces, the camel is
less subject to disease, and attains a greater
longevity, than in any other part of the world ;
and it is remarkable that in the Crimea, he is
little used in the hottest and driest season, be-
cause the heat is found too great for that variety,
and his services are most valuable in winter.

But there are important exceptions to the
general moist character of the North American
climate, and these occur precisely in the latitudes
where the soil and natural productions are best
suited to the habits and wants of the camel, and
where at the same time his peculiar properties
could be best made available for the service of
man.

The driest and most barren portions of our
territory are,

I. The Great Plain which forms the eastern

180 THE CAMEL.

slope of the Rocky Mountains. This district
embraces nearly the entire valley of the Rio
Grande, and extends northwards beyond the
northern ^jDoundary of the United States. Its
eastern border runs upon the longitude of about
96^ W. from the Rio Grande to the parallel of
37°, where it inclines to the northeast, and in
latitude 44° meets the meridian of 92° W. It
now turns to the northwest, and crosses our
northern boundary on the meridian of 94° W. ;
westwardly, it is bounded by the Rocky Moun-
tains. Throughout this vast space, whose area
is considerably greater than that of all the Amer-
ican States east of the Alleghanies, the total
annual precipitation, according to Blodget's
Kyetal Charts, nowhere exceeds twenty five
inches, and this quantity is confined to its east-
ern border, with the exception of a narrow belt
between the parallels of 35° and 37°. The cen-
tral portion northward of this belt has but fif-
teen inches of rain and snow, the residue twenty
inches annually. In the lower valley of the Rio
Grande, the precipitation is twenty inches, more
to the northwest from ten to fifteen only.

II. The Great Basin of the Interior. The
southern division of this basin Hes between the
parallels of 30° and 40° N. and the meridians of
110° and 120° W. In a small part of the east-
ern portion of this division, the rain and snow

INTRODUCTION INTO THE UNITED STATES. 181

amount to twenty inches, elsewhere the precipita-
tion is from three to five, and in some localities
ten inches, for the year. In the northern division
the precipitation is ten inches for the centre,
twenty for the borders.

In the eastern basin the winter is the driest
season, the sunimer in the western, and the
quantity of rain and snow appears, throughout
the whole extent of both, to be too small to
interfere seriously with the utility, or prejudice
the health, of the camel.

Large tracts in both basins are deserts, not
indeed absolutely destitute of vegetation, but
yielding neither grass nor shrubbery suited to
the support of any quadruped but the camel,
though there seems to be good cause to believe
that this animal, in reasonable numbers, would
find sufficient and appropriate pasturage. The
deserts in their general character bear a con-
siderable resemblance to those of Arabia, but
the deposits of sand appear to be less extensive
than the corresponding formations in the Libyan
desert. Water is only met with at long inter-
vals, and the rivers sometimes run at the bottom
of ravines so deep and with walls so precipitous,
that their beds are quite inaccessible from the
plateau above. There is, however, no evidence
of the existence of any American desert, where
water cannot be obtained as often as the animal

182 THE CAMEL.

economy of the camel requires it. None of the
passes of the Rocky Mountains are more rugged
or steeper than those of Arabia or Tartary, and
there is every probability, that all the known
routes between the Mississippi and the Pacific
coast, would prove entirely practicable to either
species of the camel.

On alluvial and other soft soils, caravans using
the camel will no doubt be obliged to halt dur-
ing rains and until the ground is dry ; but this
is no more than the emigrant wagon-trains
across the plains are compelled to do under
similar circumstances; and upon all other sur-
faces, one or the other of the species may be
used without regard to weather or to season.

So far, then, as climate and soil are concerned,
it may be regarded as quite certain that the
Bactrian camel can sustain any exposure to
which he would be subjected in our trans- Mis-
sissippian territory ; and there is no reason to
doubt that the mezquit-acacia, and other shrubs,
and the saline plants known to exist in many of
those regions, would furnish him an appropriate
and acceptable nutriment.

It is not impossible that some of our desert
plants attractive to the palate of the camel may
prove injmious to him ; but in this event, that
mysterious law of nature, whereby even animal
instincts accommodate themselves to new con-

INTRODUCTION INTO THE UNITED STATES. 183

ditions, will soon teach him to avoid them. It
is observed in the sheep-growing states of New
England, that sheep, brought from localities
where the laurel (Kalmia) is unknown, to those
where it abounds, often feed upon its foliage
and are poisoned by it, while those which are
bred in pastures half-covered by this shrub very
seldom touch it.

I cannot speak with equal confidence of the
ability of the Arabian camel, and especially of
the mahari of the desert, to bear corresponding
trials. All high-bred animals are delicate, and
impatient of exposure to great extremes and
sudden changes ; and although Denham and
Clapperton speak of hard frosts in latitude 13°
north, and Lyon records a temperature four
degrees below the freezing-point, in districts
constantly traversed by the mahari, yet the finest
and fleetest animals will not bear the winter
climate of Algiers.^ But although we may not
be able to breed dromedaries of a speed equal
to the most extraordinary performances I have
described, there is no reason to doubt that the
more common animal, which will travel eight or
ten hours a day at five miles an hour, for many
days in succession, and with greater speed for a
shorter period, can be bred and used with ad-

1 Carbuccia, p. 3.

184 THE CAMEL.

vantage throughout our southwestern territories,
and on all the more southern passes of the
mountains which divide the valley of the Mis-
sissippi from the Pacific slope, as well as through-
out the State of California.

CHAPTER XVIII.

MILITARY USES OF THE CAMEL.

The ancient Asiatics, and, at a later period,
the Romans, made a very extensive use of the
dromedary in war, not only for the transporta-
tion of men and munitions, but as technical
cavalry in actual combat.

Herodotus, Xenophon, Livy, Pliny the elder,
Diodorus, Herodian, Procopius, and other an-
cient authors, speak of the military uses of the
camel, in terms which show that he was em-
ployed in war to an extent only inferior to the
horse ; and it does not appear that there is any-
thing in his constitution or habits which in any
degree unfits him for rendering essential service
in modern warfare. The Bactrian is still em-
ployed in Persia, Bokhara, and Tartary, for
military purposes, and especially for the con-
veyance of light pieces of artillery, which are
mounted between the humps, and used in that
position, the camel kneeling while the gun is
loaded, aimed, and fired. Burckhardt saw the

186 THE CAMEL.

Arabian used in the same way, in Syria, the gun
being mounted on the pack-saddle. In modern
European armies they have hardly been em-
ployed, except by Napoleon, in transporting the
baggage of his army in the Syrian campaign,
and in his celebrated dromedary regiment in
Egypt ; and, more recently, by the army of oc-
cupation in Algeria. Upon the march from
Egypt to Syria, the baggage, the camp equi-
page, and the sick, of an army of fifteen thousand
men, were transported solely by camels.

In the campaigns of Mehemet Ali and Ibrahim
Pacha, against the Wahabis, in Arabia, camels
were the only means of transportation for heavy
ordnance, and every description of military ma-
terial, required for the large army of the Pacha ;
and though great numbers of them . perished
from the fatigues and privations of the march,
yet the loss from this cause was less than it
would have been had any other means of con-
veyance been resorted to.

It is remarkable that the military archives
of France furnish little or no information, be-
yond the mere number of the corps, respecting
the dromedary regiment of the army of Egypt,
the historical documents belonging to the sub-
ject having been chiefly lost or suppressed ; and
all we know concerning it is derived from an
imperfect and erroneous account in the great

MILITARY USES OF THE CAMEL. 187

work on Egypt, and a late paper by Jomard,
one of the savans who accompanied the expe-
dition. Without entering into minute detail, it
must suffice to say that this regiment, which
numbered something less than five hundred
men, was organized in the main like a regiment
of cavalry, and performed the same general
service, with the most brilliant success. Al-
though the men were taken from the infantry,
a very short time was required to teach them
the new discipline and drill, and the animals
were habituated to the necessary evolutions in
an incredibly short space of time. The services
rendered by the corps were of a most important
character, and its performances, according to
Pretot, were quite unprecedented in military
annals.

I abstain from particulars with reference to
the services of this regiment, because the evi-
dence on which they rest is not entirely conclu-
sive ; but there is no doubt that Napoleon himself,
and all the military authorities of the time, con-
sidered them to have been of great value.

The recent experiments in Algeria, have proved
altogether satisfactory to the officers charged
with them, and their reports seem decisive with
respect to the utility of the camel as an animal
of war, though the apparent results have cer-
tainly not been so brilliant as they are alleged

188 THE CAMEL.

to have been in the case of the dromedary regi-
ment in Egypt.

The prejudices of the officers and men against
the use of this awkward and ungraceful animal
in the regular service, have proved very difficult
to overcome. The peculiar organization of the
French commissariat has interposed serious
pecuniary obstacles, and the government has
always seemed disinclined to consider the ques-
tion in a spirit of liberality and candor. It is,
however, proved that the use of the dromedary
contributes in a most important degree to the
economy, the celerity, and the efficiency of mili-
tary movements in desert regions ; and I cannot
doubt that it would prove a powerful auxiliary
in all measures tending to keep in check the
hostile Indians on the frontier, as well as in
maintaining the military and postal communica-
tion between our Pacific territory and the east.

There are few more imposing spectacles than
a body of armed men, advancing under the
quick pace of the trained dromedary ; and this
sight, with the ability of the animal to climb
ascents impracticable to horses, and thus to
transport mountain howitzers, light artillery,
stores, and other military material into the heart
of the mountains, would strike with a salutary
terror the Comanches, Lipans, and other savage
tribes upon our borders.

MILITARY USES OF THE CAMEL. 189

The habits of these Indians much resemble
those of the nomade Arabs, and the introduc-
tion of the camel among them would modify
their modes of life as much as the use of the
horse has done. For a time, indeed, the pos-
session of this animal would only increase their
powers of mischief; but it might, in the long
run, prove the means of raising them to that
state of semi-civilized life, of which alone their
native wastes seem susceptible. The products
of the camel, milk, wool, skin, and flesh, would
prove of inestimable value to these tribes, which
otherwise are likely soon to perish with the
buffalo and other large game animals ; and the
profit of ti-ansportation across our inland desert,
might have the same effect in reclaiming these
barbarians, which it has had upon the Ai'abs of
the Sinaitic peninsula.

Among the advantages of the camel for mili-
tary purposes, may be mentioned the economy
of his original cost, as compared with the horse
or mule, when once introduced and fairly do-
mesticated ; 1 the simplicity and cheapness of
his saddle and other furniture, which every

1 The price of tlie camel is exceedingly low in all countries
where he is bred. Except for the highest breed, maharis,
it nowhere, except in the Crimea, exceeds fifty dollars, and
is in general considerably below this sum. The reason of
this is that it costs nothing to breed the animal. The dam
12

190 THE CAMEL.

soldier can manufacture for himself; the ex-
emption from the trouble and expense of pro-
viding for his sustenance, and from dressing,
sheltering, or shoeing him; his great docility,
his general freedom from disease, his longevity,
the magnitude of his burden, and the great
celerity of his movements, his extraordinary fear-
lessness,^ the safety of his rider, whether from
falls or the viciousness of the animal, the eco-
nomical value of his flesh, and the applicability
of his hair and his skin to many purposes of
military use or convenience, the resources which
in extreme cases the milk might furnish, and
finally his great powers of abstinence from both
food and drink.^

A point which deserves to be mentioned is the
comparatively insignificant loss involved in the

continues to labor during the whole period of gestation,
(which runs according to climate, from eleven, or in some
cases, ten to twelve months,) and even the dropping of a
foal scarcely delays her march. Denham and Clapperton,
I. c. 3 ; Ritter, xiii. 610. The young requires no care and
little training, and is already serviceable in his third year.

1 Carbuccia, p. 34, p. 168.

2 The use of the camel has enabled the corps which have
employed it in Algeria, to dispense altogether with a baggage
train, as the animal can transport a very considerable bur-
den, in addition to the soldier and his accoutrements, at a
much more rapid rate than the ordinary march of a column
of infantry or artillery.

MILITARY USES OF THE CAMEL. 191

death of a camel beloDging to the baggage train.
The loss of a single horse or mule may not only
occasion the abandonment of the load, but of the
wagon, often an expensive vehicle, to which he
was attached ; whereas, in case of the death of
a burden camel, the only equipage lost is his
pack-saddle, which is of very trifling pecuniary
value. Wheel carriages and harnesses are ex-
posed to constant breakage in crossing the plains.
The means of repairing them are not always
at hand, and even when much time has been
spent in putting them to rights, they not unfre-
quently break dpwn altogether before the jour-
ney is half completed. The employment of the
burden camel is attended with none of these
risks and inconveniences.

I may add another advantage, which will be
appreciated by all who know the difficulty of
conducting a caravan of mules or horses across
the plains. I refer to the security from stam-
pedes and other nocturnal alarms and losses. The
dromedary is a much less timid animal than the
horse or mule, and he is not sufficiently gregari-
ous in his habits to be readily influenced by a
panic terror. The mode by which he is confined
at night, furnishes a complete security against
escapes from fright or other causes. As he lies
down, he folds the forelegs under the body. The
Arab passes a loop around one or both of the
folded limbs, above the knee, and secures the

192 THE CAMEL.

end of the cord around the neck. When both
legs are thus shackled, the camel can rise only
to the knee ; if one only is hoppled, he rises with
difficulty, and moves very slowly ; and if an In-
dian were to cut the loop, and thus free the ani-
mal, and even succeed in mounting him, he
would not be able, without a previous practice,
which he has not the means of acquiring, to put
him up to such a speed as to elude pursuit.

There is another point which I have never
heard insisted on, but which has often struck me
with some force in riding the camel. I mean
the greater range of vision which, in a level
counti'y, the greater elevation of the seat gives
the rider. The eye of the horseman is upon an
average scarcely eight feet above the gi'ound.
Upon the dromedary it is two feet higher, and
commands a wider range accordingly.

To all these advantages there are, so far as I
am aware, but few drawbacks. The whole ques-
tion has been much discussed among the military
men of France, with reference to the employ-
ment of the camel in Algeria, and the examina-
tion of the various points presented in these
discussions forms the most valuable part of
Carbuccia's work. He reviews the various ob-
jections, which have been urged against the in-
troduction of the camel into the military service,
and I think disposes of them all satisfactorily.
I do not discover any local objections growing

MILITARY USES OF THE CAMEL. 193

out of peculiarities of our soil, climate, habits,
or institutions ; and, on the other hand, the differ-
ent character and circumstances of the hostile
Indians, who are without, and could not procure
the animal, form a new argument in favor of
the project. Another argument upon the same
side is the fact that the distances over which he
would be used are far greater, and the country
to be traversed more inadequately supplied with
the necessaries required to satisfy the wants of
other animals of transport, than is the case in
the territory where the camel has operated in
Algeria.

The expense of a full and fair trial would be
a sum very insignificant in comparison with the
probable results. The experiment now trying
under the small appropriation made at the last
session of congress, if successful, is of course
decisive, but if not, it is to be hoped that it may
be repeated on a larger scale, and with a greater
variety of animals.

An objection which ought to be noticed is the
difficulty of accustoming horses and other do-
mestic animals to the sight of the camel. The
objection is as old as Herodotus and Xenophon,
and Pliny supposes that this animal has a nat-
ural antipathy to the horse. In most countries
where they are bred together, one hears of no
difficulty on this score ; but it is said that the
fears of the one animal or the antipathies of the

194 THE CAMEL.

other have been found an inconvenience in Tus-
cany ; and even in Tartary, where the Bactrian
has been long in use, it appears from Father
Hue. that horses regard them with fear or dis-
like ; but the objection is of no great force as
appHed to the sparsely populated regions of the
far West, and as the multiplication of the ani-
mal would be gradual and slow, it is not likely
that any great or general evil would flow from
this source.

The most serious inconvenience which would
attend the use of the camel in marching through
a country inhabited by hostile Indians, is the
necessity of allowing him to wander in search
of food ; but as he habitually returns to camp
before sunset, of his own accord, and never feeds,
and very seldom stirs during the night, he would
require to be watched only for a couple of hours
during the whole twenty-four.

The testimony is so strong in favor of the
Bactrian for northern latitudes, and of the cross
between the two species for the general purposes
of a burden animal, that it is highly important
to import a sufficient number of the former spe-
cies to test the qualities of both the pure breed
and the hybrid, with reference to our own special
wants. Now that peace is restored, the Bactrian
might readily be obtained from the Russo-Euro-
pean provinces on the Black Sea, but as the
camels of those provinces are trained only for

MILITARY USES OF THE CAMEL. 195

draught, it would be more advisable to procure
them from the Calmucks, in the neighborhood of
the Caspian, where they are used for burden and
for the saddle, and, according to Bergmann, pos-
sess great speed, and they could be shipped at
some of the ports of the sea of Azow, or they
might perhaps, with even greater convenience,
be bought at Petropawlowsk, on the Pacific, at
the season of the visit of the caravans, and landed
in California.

The best and fleetest dromedaries are those of
Nubia, and of Yemen in Arabia, but the latter
are greatly inferior in both size and strength to
those of Nubia, as well as to the mahari of the
Sahara. That either of these breeds would
thrive in any part of our territory is hardly prob-
able, and there does not seem to exist any pres-
ent strong motive for attempting on a large scale
their naturalization in the United States.

In the introduction of the animal, advantage
will no doubt be taken of the experience acquired
by the French in Algeria, and it may be reason-
ably hoped that European and American intel-
ligence will more fully develop the powers of the
camel, and thus add a new and important re-
source to the means and agencies of Christian
civilization.

" If," says General Marey Monge, " cavalry
had been unknown in France, and we, seeing
the great advantages derived from it by the

196 THE CAMEL.

Arabs, had now for the first time attempted to
introduce it into our military service, we should
have had a thousand difficulties to overcome.
Objections would have been made on the score
of kicks and bites, errors would have been com-
mitted in the choice of saddles and bridles,
the horses would have met with accidents, or
conti'acted ailments from our want of expe-
rience and ignorance of farriery ; in the first
engagements, our mounted men would have
been thrown or run away with, they would
have been clumsy in managing their arms on
horseback, and probably been roughly handled
by the superior skill of the Arab horsemen. A
party would have been formed against the in-
novators, who would themselves have become
disgusted, and the attempt to introduce mounted
corps would perhaps have been abandoned ; but
if, in spite of accidents, mistakes, and losses,
we had persevered, we should have ended by
forming what we have now, an efficient and ex-
cellent cavalry."

This argument is as valid with us as it was
in Algeria ; and if the experiment shall be tried
in the United States without success, it will
probably fail for reasons as specious but as in-
conclusive as those which General Monge sup-
poses against the introduction of cavalry into
the French military service.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX A.

Notes from Baron Hammer-Purgstall's Paper
Das Kamel, in the Denkschriften der Kai-

SERLICHEN AkADEMIE DER WiSSENSCHAFTEN.

Phil. Hist. ; Classe VI.

Baron Hammer's paper is founded wholly on oriental,
and chiefly on lexicographical and poetical authorities,
and gives therefore rather the philological and imagi-
native than the descriptive and historical view of the
subject. None of the numerous special Arabic works
on the camel, whose authors or titles are referred to by
Hammer, are found in any library in Europe ; but he
seems to have collected from lexicons, from the wide
range of Arabic poetry, and from other sources, all the
passages of Arabic literature, which throw light on the
relatives of this animal to Arab life.

Although, therefore, it cannot be said that many new
facts of physiological interest are brought to light by the
portion of the Essay now published, it is highly prob-
able, that the original texts which are to follow, and
which, as Hammer says, " contain much that is new to
the naturalist," will, to use his own language, " show how
natural history and physiology may be advanced by
philology and the knowledge of words."

The paper is divided into four principal sections,

200 APPENDIX.

the Jirst treating generally of the camel and his animal
life, the second of the members, constituents, and pro-
ducts of his body, his properties and qualities, and the
third of his conditions, uses, and treatment. These sec-
tions are subdivided into sixteen chapters. T\\q fourth
section, in four chapters, gives the few passages of the
Koran in which mention is made of the camel ; the tra-
ditional expressions of Mohammed referring to the ani-
mal ; one hundred and forty-seven proverbs and pro-
verbial phrases ; and numerous passages translated from
twenty Arabic poets, descriptive or illustrative of the
habits, uses, and value of the camel.

As might be expected, many of these chapters add
nothing to the existing stock of information on the sub-
ject, though frequently interesting from the glimpses
they afford of oriental life and oriental character.

I confine my excerpts to passages wdiich supply
omissions in the foregoing pages.

Chap. I. Names of the camel. The general name
of the animal is not, as is mistakenly supposed, the
Arabic word dscheml, or dscherael, (jeml, in English
orthography,) but Ibl Dscheml is only used of the
male, naket, (written naga by most travellers) of the
female, when there is occasion to specify the sex. All
the other numerous names of the camel indicate age,
sex, or properties, and Ibl is the only word which
expresses the species in the abstract, without reference
to accidents.

Chap. II. A small delicate and pointed ear is a sign
of "blood," and the ear of high-bred animals is often
cut, so that a strip of the lobe hangs pendent. In a

APPENDIX. 201

note to this cliapter, the author observes that el-Bochti,
the proper specific designation of the Bactrian, is some-
times applied to strong camels generally.

Chap. IV. The camel does not attain his full
strength and perfection until the age of nine years, and
his utmost term of life, like that of man, is fourscore.

Chap. VIII. When the foal is to be weaned, he is
turned towards Canopus, at its rising, his master gives
him a blow on the ear, and says, with an oath, " here-
after drinkest thou no drop of milk ! " Hence the
newly-weaned camel is called Lathhn, the ear-boxed.

Chap. IX. For want of vegetable nutriment, the
camel is sometimes fed with fat and flesh, but this diet
weakens and enervates him. Katdd, a species of traga-
canth, and Thildh, a thorny acacia, are said to produce
colic.

Chap. X. Different animals require water at dif-
ferent intervals, from one day to ten, and are named
accordingly.

Chap. XI. The eyes are protected against the cold
by Uinders, not unlike those worn by European horses.
The Arab judges whether the animal is fat enough for
slaughter by looking at the eye.

Chap. XIII. White is the favorite color, next
black. There are special names for those spotted or
mottled with white or black, as well as for other colors.

Chap. XV. The milk of the camel is intoxicating.
Various extracts are given, showing the use of the ani-
mal as a beast of the saddle in battle.

Chap. XVI. p. 91 mentions the protection of young
camels against cold by blankets or housings.

APPENDIX B.

SIR EVERARD HOME's ANATOMY OF THE STOMACH.

" The camel's stomach anteriorly forms one large bag,
but when laid open this is found to be divided into two
compartments on its posterior part, by a strong ridge,
which passes down from the right side of the orifice of
the cesophagus in a longitudinal direction. This ridge
forms one side of a groove that leads to the orifice of
the second cavity, and is continued on beyond that part,
becoming one boundary to the cellular structure met
with in that situation. From this ridge eight strong
muscular bands go off at right angles, and afterwards
form curved lines till they are insensibly lost in the
coats of the stomach. These are at equal distances
from each other, and, being intersected in a regular way
by transverse septa, form the cells. This cellular
structure is in the left compartment of the first cavity,
and there is another of a more superficial kind on the
right, placed in exactly the opposite direction, made up
of twenty-one rows of smaller cells, but entirely un-
connected with the great ridge. On the left side of the
termination of the cesophagus, a broad muscular band
has its origin from the coats of the first cavity, and
passes down in the form of a fold parallel to the great
ridge, till it enters the orifice of the second, where it

APPENDIX. 203

takes another direction. It is continued along the upper
edge of that cavity, and terminates within the orifice
of a small bag, which may be termed the third cavity.
Tliis band on one side and the great ridge on the other
form a canal, which leads from the oesophagus down to
the cellular structure in the lower part of the first
cavity. The orifice of the second cavity, when this
muscle is not in action, is nearly shut ; it is at right
angles to the side of the first. The second cavity forms
a pendulous bag, in which there are twelve rows of
cells formed by as many muscular bands, passing in a
transverse direction, and intersected by weaker muscu-
lar bands, so as to form the orifice of the cells. Above
these cells, between them and the muscle which passes
along the upper part of this cavity, is a smooth surface,
extending from the orifice of this cavity to the termina-
tion in the third.

" From this account, it is evident that the second
cavity neither receives the solid food in the first in-
stance, as in the bullock, nor does the food afterwards
pass into the cavity or cellular structure. The food
first passes into the first compartment of the first cavity,
and that portion of it which lies in the recess immedi-
ately below the entrance of the oesophagus, under which
the cells are situated, is kept moist, and is readily re-
turned into the mouth along the groove formed for that
purpose, by the action of the strong muscle which sur-
rounds this part of the stomach, so that the cellular
portion of the first cavity in the camel j^erforms the
same ofiice as the second in ruminants with horns.
While the camel is drinking, the action of the muscular

204 APPENDIX.

band opens the orifice of the second cavity at the same
time that it directs the water into it; and when the
cells of that cavity are full, the rest runs off into the
cellular structure of the first cavity immediately below,
and afterwards into the general cavity. It would ap-
pear that camels when accustomed to go journeys, in
which they are kept for an unusual number of days
without water, acquire the power of dilating the cells
so as to make them contain a more than ordinary quan-
tity as a supply for their journey ; at least, such is the
account given by those who have been in Egypt.
When the cud has been chewed, it has to pass along
the upper part of the second cavity before it can reach
the third. How this is effected without its falling into
the cellular portion, could not, from any inspection of
dried specimens, be ascertained ; but when the recent
stomach is accurately examined, the mode in which this
is managed becomes very obvious. At the time that
the cud has to pass from the mouth, the muscular band
contracts with so much force that it not only opens the
orifice of the second cavity, but acting on the mouth of
the third brings it forward into the second, by which
means the muscular ridges that separate the rows of
cells are brought close together, so as to exclude these
cavities from the canal though which the cud passes.

" It appears that the small cavity regarded by Dau-
benton as analogous to a reticulum, was not considered
by Mr. John Hunter as of sufficient importance to be
ranked as a distinct stomach ; and the water-bag must
therefore, in his opinion, have held the place of the
honey-comb bag in the horned ruminants. And when

APPENDIX. 205

we compare the relation of the reticulum to the rumen
in that tribe with the corresponding free communication
which subsists between the water-bag and rumen in the
camel tribe ; and when also we observe in both the
precise correspondence in the mode of communication
of these two cavities with the oesophagus, and with the
muscular apparatus destined to convey the remasticated
food beyond their apertures into the third cavity, and
at the same time find an approach to the peculiar dis-
position of the cells of the water-bag in the reticulum
of some of the horned ruminants, it becomes evident
that the two cavities are analogous, the reticulum of the
camels being modified for its destined function by the
greater development of the secondary cells, by the ab-
sence of a cuticular lining, and by the production of
the inner layer of the muscular tunic, which forms the
apparatus for closing the orifice of the primary cells.
The third cavity, therefore, which could not have been
recognized as a distinct compartment in the llama, and
which undoubtedly receives the remasticated food in
the camel, ought rather to be regarded as a peculiar
structure, to which nothing analogous is to be found in
the stomachs of the horned ruminants."

13

APPENDIX C.

NOTE ON THE BACTRIAN CAMEL.

I SUBJOIN, in a connected and condensed form, the
substance of replies to queries which I addressed to
correspondents in the southern provinces of Russia re-
specting the Bactrian camel.

But a single species of camel, namely, the Bactrian
or two-humped animal, is known in Southern Russia.
The average height from the top of the head to the sole
of the foot is about four arschin (nine feet four inches)
in Bessarabia. In the Crimea his height is stated at
about seven feet.^ He w^eighs about one third more
than the ox, which is here estimated at nine hundred
pounds. In the former province, the mean duration of
his life is estimated at thirty-five years, in the latter at
from sixty to seventy-five, and in some cases it is said
to extend to a century.^

1 The expression about four arschin is probably not to be taken
very literally, as it indicates a considerably higher stature than is
generally ascribed to any breed of the animal, except, in rare
cases, to the mahari of the Sahara. It does not appear from my
memoranda, whether the measurement in the Crimea was from
the shoulders or the hump.

2 If this remarkable difference between the Bessarabian and
the Crimean camel really exists, may it not be ascribed to the
drier summers of the latter province, the more desert character
of the soil, and the freer range allowed to the animal ?

APPENDIX. 207

From the beginning of the fifth year he is used for
riding and draught in Bessarabia ; from the beginning
of the fourth, in the Crimea, but for draught alone.
The female produces her first foal after the fifth year,
and thereafter every second year. The time of gesta-
tion is a year, that of lactation two years, and the dam
is used during the latter period.

In the Crimea, the camel is used only for drawing
heavy loads, but not for ploughing or other agricultural
labor, on account of his " unsteadiness." In Bessarabia,
however, he is employed regularly for all the labors of
rural industry.

His fleece weighs about ten pounds, and is shed in
the summer, if not plucked off by hand. The Tartars
manufacture a coarse cloth from it. The wool sells at
five silver rubles the pood of about thirty six pounds
Eng. The skin is thought not equal to that of the ox.
It is principally used raw for thongs, ropes, straps, &c.,
and sells for three or four silver rubles. The milk is
used in a great variety of ways. The yield is about
two quarts. The flesh is eaten and resembles beef, if
the animal is fat, otherwise it is tough and disagreeable.
The bones and intestines have not been applied to any
practical use.

The Bactrian travels from seventy to seventy-five
versts (46 to 50 miles) a day, without eating, drinking,
or halting. His gait is regular, and his speed con-
siderably exceeds that of the ox. He cannot be used
on muddy ground, not so much from any liability to slip
and fall, as because the wet earth adheres to his feet,
and makes him restive and impatient. In the Crimea

208 APPENDIX.

he is principally employed in the winter. His feet re-
quire no shoeing or other protection, and he travels
perfectly well on snow, ice, and frozen ground. Al-
though he labors the whole year through in Bessarabia,
he is of comparatively little use in the summer in the
Crimea, where he is only employed for draught. At
that season, if yoked to the wagon, he is annoyed by
the heat, sweats profusely and becomes exhausted.
His feet do not suffer from travelling on soils im-
pregnated with mineral salts.

His gait, which is an amble, is by no means weari-
some to the rider, and he never stumbles in going up
hill or down. He is in general docile, obedient, and
patient, but in the rutting season, the male is ill tem-
pered and sometimes dangerous. Two or four camels
are harnessed to wagons and sledges with a yoke re-
sembling an ox yoke and are guided by the halter.
Upon a dry road, a pair will draw from eighty to one
hundred poods, (twenty-nine to thirty-seven hundred
pounds.) He is never harnessed singly.

He goes twice as long as the horse without drink-
ing, and is content with the poorest fodder. In the
summer, he feeds on thistles, weeds, rushes, reeds, and
in general on coarse vegetables, which are not eaten by
other animals, and in fact, he scarcely rejects any green
thing. In winter, his nutriment consists of hay, straw,
and coarse fodder. He requires from fifty to seventy
pounds of dry food per day, but it is found good econ-
omy to feed him well, as he performs much more ser-
vice, than if poorly nourished.

When he is in good case, the humps, of which the

APPENDIX. 209

forward one is perhaps a little the largest, are erect,
and about a foot and a half in height. When he is
thin, they become flaccid, and even hang down upon
his sides.

He is never housed or otherwise sheltered, summer
or winter.

He does not suffer more than other domestic animals
from insects.

The only disease to which the Bactrian is known to
be subject is a blistered tongue, which hinders him from
eating, and he pines away. It is ascribed to bad fodder
and lying on damp and dirty ground. The only
remedy is cauterizing the blisters with a red-hot iron.

Horses, cattle, and sheep, though at first much afraid
of the camel, soon become accustomed to him.

The average price of a pair of Bactrians is 175
silver rubles, but particularly fine animals sometimes
sell as high as 300 silver rubles the pair.

The Bactrian is bred chiefly in the southernmost
provinces of Russia. He does not multiply readily,
more northwardly, although extensively used there.

Upon the whole, the use of the camel is rather
decHning in all the provinces most advanced in civiliza-
tion.

APPENDIX D.

IMPORTATION OF CAMELS BY THE GOVERNMENT OF
THE UNITED STATES.

Haying been kindly permitted by tlie Hon. JeiFerson
Davis, Secretary of War, to examine the official cor-
respondence between the War Department and the
officers charged with the importation of the camel
into the United States, I am enabled to furnish the fol-
lowing information on that interesting subject.

At the second session of the thirty-third Congress,
the sum of thirty thousand dollars was appropriated
for "importing camels for army transportation, and
for other military purposes," with a view of testing
their adaptation to our soil and climate, and to the ser-
vice of the government as beasts of burden and trans-
port. Major Henry C. Wayne, of the United States
Army, was assigned to the duty of selection, purchase,
and importation of the animals, and Lieut. D. D.
Porter, of the Navy, was associated with him in the
commission. The valuable services of Mr. Harris
Heap, whose familiar acquaintance with the languages
and customs of the countries where the camels were to
be obtained, enabled him to be of great use to the of-
ficers detailed to this duty, were secured, and the store-
ship Supply, under command of Lieut. Porter, was

APPENDIX. 211

ordered to proceed to tlie Levant to take the camels
on board, and land them in Texas, where the climate
and other circumstances were thought most favorable
for commencing the experiment.

Upon his outward passage. Major Wayne visited
London and Paris, and at the former city collected
some particulars respecting the ability of the animal to
bear a considerable change of climate and a long con-
finement, which are not without interest. Prof. Owen,
perhaps the highest authority in England on such sub-
jects, manifested much interest in Major Wayne's mis-
sion, and expressed the most entire confidence in the
practicability of naturalizing the camel in the United
States. At the Zoological Gardens, Major Wayne found
two good specimens of the Egyptian burden camel.
They had been five years at the Gardens, had never
been affected with disease, and had bred two foals.
Five camels have been born at the Gardens, three of
which were reared. One imported camel lived twenty
years in the menagerie of tlie Zoological Society, and
was then sent to Ghent, where he lived at least three
years longer. Li winter, water is often frozen solid
in their stalls at London, but they have not appeared
to suffer from the cold. Li summer, they consume
fifteen pounds each, of coarse and inferior hay, and oc-
casionally a little of the straw furnished for their litter.
In winter, two quarts of oats, barley, or bran, per day,
are added to their ration. The attendants thought
them hardier than the coach horse, and, as before
stated, they have never been affected by any trouble-
some fiialady. They are housed in winter, * and no

212 APPENDIX.

difficulty lias been experienced in managing and con-
trolling them.

Major AVayne found at Paris none of the French of-
ficers who had used the camel in Algeria, but procured
a pamphlet by Gen. Daumas on the acclimatization of
the camel in France. The pamphlet conveys little
new information. It gives a list of the Arabic names
of the plants on which the camel feeds, but many of
these have not been identified by their European or
scientific names. The list embraces one hundred and
twenty species, certainly a pretty large proportion of
the wild plants of Algeria. Besides vegetables com-
monly known as the food of the camel, I observe species
of hyoscyamus and of terebinth, but I do not find the
coloquintida, by either its officinal or its Arabic name,
(hamdal,) nor any of the cactacese. Gen. Daumas
describes a much more careful treatment of both dam
and foal than is usual among the Bedouins, and ob-
serves that fodder on which blood has been spilt is
believed to be poisonous to the cameL

Lieut. Porter visited Pisa, and saw the herd upon
the Grand-ducal farm. He thinks they have not de-
generated since their importation from Egypt, but on
the contrary improved, and says that though neglected,
overworked, never fed, but left to sustain themselves
by browsing on the pine barrens, and not housed in
winter, they are able to carry burdens of twelve hun-
dred English pounds. With respect to their load,
Lieut. Porter's information is much the same as was
given me by the keej^ers, but I must observe that
in December, 1849, I saw one hundred and forty of

APPENDIX. 213

these animals stabled and regularly fed with hay at the
Grand Duke's cascine near Pisa.

Major Wayne having joined the Supply, she pro-
ceeded to Tunis, where three camels were taken on
board, with a view to test the arrangements which had
been made by Lieut. Porter for their conveyance, and
to experiment upon their management at sea, and the
vessel proceeded to Constantinople, touching at Malta,
Smyrna, and Salonica. The Supply arrived at Con-
stantinople after a voyage of nearly ninety days from
Tunis, and the camels did not appear to have suffered
from either the long confinement on shipboard, or the
rolling of the vessel in the heavy weather to which she
was exposed. They consumed from eight to twelve
pounds of hay and six quarts of oats per day each,
and were watered once in three days, taking upon an
average from two and a half to three buckets of water
at a draught.

From Constantinople, Major Wayne .and Lieut.
Porter proceeded to Balaclava, where they saw both
the Bactrian and the Arabian species. The incon-
venience of accommodating a pack-saddle to the back
of the two-humped camel was considered by the British
officers a serious objection to the employment of that
species for burden. It is not so tall as the Arabian,
and slower of pace, but stronger. Col. McMurdo of
the British Army, who had had great experience in the
use of the Arabian camel in India, had a very high
opinion of its value in the military service. Their
burden, when employed by the British Army, he stated
to average, under favorable circumstances, six hundred

214 APPENDIX.

pounds, and their ordinary day's journey under this
burden, " without pushing," from twenty-five to thirty
miles. Gen. Napier organized in India a corps of five
hundred camels, each carrying two men riding back to
back, the forward rider being the groom and driver, the
other a soldier. In action, the camels were formed into
one or more squares, made to kneel, and hoppled. The
soldiers were armed with rifles and sabres, and fought
on foot. The corps would march seventy miles in
twelve hours, and in the war in Sinde rendered effi-
cient service. Gen. Simpson, of the British Army, in-
formed Major Wayne that, when serving in India, he
had five or six camels for his personal use, and pre-
ferred them to the best English horses, as being capa-
ble of longer marches. The only objection to their
use was the difficulty of accustoming horses to them.

From Constantinople, the Supply proceeded to Alex-
andria, where some valuable animals were procured,
one male from Sennaar, two from Siout, and one from
the vicinity of Mount Sinai, a female from Muscat, and
four from Siout, making nine in all, some of them for
burden and some for the saddle. From Alexandria,
Lieut. Porter writes, that one of the Tunisian camels,
(two having been left at Constantinople,) had been on
board one hundred and twenty days, and had improved
in condition, upon an allowance of eight pounds of hay
only per day.

They now sailed for Smyrna, and there purchased
two male Bactrians, one cross between the male Bac-
trian and the female Arabian, four male, and fifteen
female Arabians, one of which soon after produced a

APPEITDIX. 215

male foal. With this number, thirty-three in all, they
sailed for the United States, and after putting into
Kingston for water, they arrived on the coast of
Texas early in May, with the loss, it is said, of but a
single animal. Three Arabs and two Turks have ac-
companied them to the United States as grooms and
drivers, and the entire cost of purchase and all con-
tingent expenses has not exceeded eight thousand
dollars.

This remarkable success in transporting so large
animals to so great a distance on shipboard, furnishes
a gratifying proof of the very judicious nature of the
arrangements made by the officers for the performance
of this difficult duty, and at the same time shows a
power of endurance in the animal quite unexpected,
thus fully justifying Major Wayne's opinion, that " the
camel bears transportation by sea better than the horse,
the mule, or the ox."

The officers have acted wisely in selecting varieties
best adapted for general service. To have expended
the funds at their command in obtaining animals of the
swiftest breeds would have hazarded the success of the
whole enterprise, while there can be little doubt, that
in procuring camels from climates nearly corresponding
with those in which they are to be naturalized, they
have greatly increased the chances of a favorable result.
With the Arabian and the Bactrian, we have the
means of trying an expervmentum crucis, on the adapta-
tion of the hardier and more serviceable kinds to our
conditions and wants, and with the experience which
will be' acquired from these, it will be comparatively an

216 APPENDIX.

easy task to introduce, hereafter, breeds possessing any-
special qualities, which the more ordinary animal may
be found to want.

It need hardly be added, that the opinions of Major
Wayne and Lieut. Porter are entirely favorable to the
success of the attempt to introduce and naturalize the
camel, and that hitherto no unexpected obstacle or
difficulty of any sort has presented itself.

The reader cannot but be struck with surprise at the
extremely small quantity of nutriment consumed by the
animals while on board the vessel. The opinion I had
formed on this subject from personal observation, and
expressed in Cliapter IX. has been very fully con-
firmed. Doubtless in colder weather, and especially
when exposed to severe labor, the camel will require a
more liberal supply of food, but even under the most
unfavorable circumstances, there is no probability that
the cost of his keeping will approach that of the horse.
Indeed, upon most routes where he will be employed,
he will require no nutriment but those plants with
which nature has sown the desert, as if for his especial
sustenance. I find no satisfactory evidence that he
feeds on any of the cacti, but though he may reject
these plants at first, it is not improbable that he may
learn to eat them, as thirst has taught the mule in
South America to feed upon the melon-cactus or rather
to drink its juices, in spite of the formidable spines
with which it is armed.^ The foHage and especially

1 Humboldt, Ansichten der Natnr, i. Steppen und Wilsten.
Cattle are fed upon cacti in New Mexico, the spines being
burnt off.

APPENDIX. 217

the seed-pods and seeds of the mezquit would doubtless
prove a very acceptable and nutritious diet to the camel.
The mezquit appears closely to resemble the sont or
gum arable tree of the Arabian and Libyan deserts.
I have often tempted the camel with the seed-vessels of
this acacia, and found, that he would turn from beans,
otherwise a favorite food, to devour them. The mez-
quit yields a large crop of seeds, and these do not fall
with the leaf, but the pod remains attached to the
branches, still unopened until after the appearance of
the new leaf. There is consequently no period of the
year, when it does not furnish either foliage or seeds,
and as it is found almost everywhere upon the plains,
there is reason to believe that independently of other
vegetables indigenous to the American desert, the mez-
quit alone would provide abundantly for the support of
the camel, over very wide tracts which yield little or no
food for the horse or the ox.

INDEX

INDEX.

Pasre

Abstinence of camel from food 83

water .89

Age of camel shown by teeth 71

Anatomy, general 37

Bactrian camel, best for northern latitudes 194

Bedouin, primitive habits of 27

quarrels of 165

sleeps and even cooks upon camel 135

travels by night 140

wonderful acquaintance with characteristics

of the camel 102

Burden of camel 104

of Grand Duke's camels 106

measure and average of 107

Callosities of camel 42

Camel adapted to deserts 22

Arabian described 31

by Volney 23

Bactrian described 35, 206

branded 163

broken when very j^oung 95

called ' Ship of the Desert ' 21

climbs well 46

color 66

crammed in some countries 85

diet 84,85,86

disappears, before civilization 25

diseases 66

employed for draught • • • - 10 7-8

foal, able to walk at birth 99

fords rivers 51

geographical range 23

14

222 INDEX.

Papre
Camel, his progress eastward 1 76

how treated by Arabs 99

how treated by Egyptians 100

mihtary uses of 185

not housed 103

numbers of • 162

products 74-81

range of country 1 74

range of vision while riding 192

sagacity of 100

secure from stampedes • > 191

size 64

useful for transporting light artillery 188

value for the saddle 123

Caravan 136

organization and march of 242

length of day's journey • 122

Carbuccia, Du Dromadaire 29

Castration • 69

Cereal grains not affected by change of climate 18

Civilized man has conquered inon/anic nature only 15

reclaimed no wild animals 16

Climates inhabited by camel <• 170

Clothing for desert travel • • • • 148

Deloul, name of swift camel in Arabia and Syria 33

Desert not absolutely sterile 83

temperature of 171

Domestic plants and animals not traceable to original

stocks 17

reclaimed by primitive man 17

Dromedaries, fleetest where found 1 95

Dromedary, breed not species 31, 34

gear of 113

high-bred, requires careful training 95

mode of training, described 95-8

Egyptians ancient, did not possess camel 31

INDEX. 223

Pn?e

Encampment of caravan 158

Exaggeration, oriental 168

Eye, form and direction of 41

Felt cloths for camels 173

Flesh of camel 78

Foot, adaptation of the various surfaces 45

of Bactrian, has longer toes 48

does not require protection 48

protected in Arabia 48

slides in mud 49

structure of 45

French dromedary regiment 186

Furniture of the camel 108

Gad-fly annoys camel 67

Gait of camel 130-4

Gestation 69

Gobi, camels in desert of -174

Growl of camel 71

Haj6en, Arabian and Egyptian name of swift camel- • • • .33

Hair of camel 76

Halt of caravan inconvenient « 156

Hammer-Purgstall, Das Kamel 28

Harlan, Gen., Paper on camel 36

Head of camel 40

Heart of camel 78

Horses, antipathy of, to camel 193

Hump of camel 39, 78

Importation by U. S. Government 210

Indian corn, range of • 18

Indians, introduction of camel among them 189

Invalids and ladies, mode of riding .115

Layard, camel vehicle described by 118

Literature of subject 28

Leech, annoys camel 67

Leading the camel, manner of 113

^ Longevity of camel 70

224 INDEX.

Page
Lyins: down 43

Mahafa, description of 116

Mahari, name of swift camel in Sahara. 33

mode of riding the 114

Malstrom, fable of 34

Mehemet Ali, his journey on camel 124

Milk of camel 74

Moosultah, description of 115

Nostril, structure of 42

sometimes slit 42

Ostrich, called camel-bird 41

Pack-saddle, illustrated and described 110-11

Reindeer used for saddle in Siberia 23

Ritter, Essay on geog. range of camel 28

Rutting season .69

Savages do not attempt conquest of inorganic nature- • • • 15

subdue organic world 16

Security of seat on camel 133

Shibreeyeh, description of 115

Skin, uses of 79

Species and breeds 30

Speed 120, 124-127, 128, 129

Stomach, structure of 53, 62

Takhtirawan, description of 117

Tallow 80

Tread of camel silent 49

United States, adaptation of Bactrian camel to 182

Arabian camel in 183

great basin of -. • 180

great plain of 179

introduction of camel into 177

Water, brackish preferred by camel 94

quantity taken by camel 93

to be sparingly used in Desert 147

Wild animals protected by civilization 17

Zemzemeek, water-bottle 147

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