108 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

obtained, being composed of fat, which can be absorbed
into the system when necessary for the subsistence of the
animal.

Endowed with greater strength and activity than most
beasts of burthen, docile and contented with the coarsest
food, the camel is peculiarly adapted to its station. To the
Arabs, and other wanderers of the desert, it affords at once
wealth, subsistence, and many comforts and luxuries; its
milk furnishes them with nutriment; the flesh of the young
animal is one of their greatest delicacies; of the skin they
form tents, or make it into saddles, harness, shields, and
various other articles ; the hair is also valuable. The train-
ing of the young camel begins when it is only a few days’
old, its little limbs being folded under the body, and it is
compelled to remain in this position whilst loaded with a
weight which is increased as the animal gains strength. A
strong camel will carry from eight hundred to a thousand
pounds weight, from thirty to thirty-five miles a day; and
those which are used only for speed, will travel from sixty
to ninety miles. They prefer nettles, thistles, cassia, and
other prickly plants, to the softest herbage.

Camels are first mentioned in the 12th chapter of Genesis,
when Abram was travelling through Egypt with his wife