THE CAMEL. 193

female serves as an article of food, the surplus wool of his
body as a material for rough woven cloth and his dung as
excellent fuel. He is said by some to be docile and affectionate
and by others to be dull and stupid, though harbouring the
spirit of revenge. Probably like many other animals he will
be found to reciprocate the treatment he receives in kindness
as well as in cruelty. Some confusion exists in the popular
mind as to distinctions between the Camel and the Dromedary,
the number of the humps being said to differentiate the two.
With regard to this Mr. Palgrave in his “ Travels in Central and
Eastern Arabia”, says:—“The camel and the dromedary in
Arabia are the same identical genus and creature, excepting
that the dromedary is a high-bred camel, and the camel
a low-bred dromedary; exactly the distinction which exists
between a race-horse and a hack; both are horses, but the
one of blood and the other not. The dromedary is the race
horse of this species, thin, elegant, (or comparatively so) fine
haired, light of step, easy of pace, and much more enduring
of thirst than the woolly, thick-built, heavy-footed, ungainly
and jolting camel. But both and each of them have only
one hump, placed immediately behind their shoulders, where
it serves as a fixing point for the saddle or burden. For
the two humped beast—it exists, indeed, but it is neither an
Arab dromedary nor camel; it belongs to the Persian breed
called by the Arabs ‘Bakhtee’ or Bactrian.”
The Strength Tike all animals in their native lands the camel
and : : .
Endurance Shows remarkable adaptation to his environment.
of the Camel. Water is scarce in the desert, so the ship of the
desert, as he has been poetically called, is provided with a
capacity for the storage of the precious fluid and is able to
take in a several days’ supply at one time. The camel is
said to drink “fifty, sixty, or even a hundred pounds’ weight”
of water at one time, and then to go for three or four days
without a fresh supply. Again food is scarce in the desert,
and the herbage of a very coarse kind, but the camel is able

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