194 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE,

to do with remarkably little food, if his size and the weight
of his burden are taken into consideration, and he will browse
contentedly upon such food as he finds by the wayside,
supplemented by “a cake of barley, a few dates, or beans”
from the hands of his master. “They are particularly fond,”
says a writer in “Tales of Animals”, “of those vegetable
productions, which other animals would never touch, such
as plants which are like spears and daggers, in comparison
with the needles of the thistle, and which often pierce the
incautious traveller’s boot.” A camel can be purchased in
Egypt for from thirty to fifty dollars, though the high bred
dromedary will fetch a very much larger sum. The camel
will carry from five hundred to eight hundred pounds’ weight,
but will not stir if loaded beyond his strength. He travels
at a uniform rate of three miles an hour, but will keep on
at that rate for ten or twelve hours. The dromedary attains
to a speed which the Arab compares to the speed of the
wind.

The Came: Mr. Macfarlane says, “I have been told that
and his the Arabs will kiss their Camels in gratitude and
Master. affection, after a journey across the desert. I

never saw the Turks either of Asia-~-Minor or Roumelia, carry
their kindness so far as this; but I have frequently seen them
pat their Camels when the day’s work was done, and talk to them
on their journey, as if to cheer them. The Camels appeared
to me quite as sensible to favour and gentle treatment as a
good bred horse is. I have seen them curve and twist their
long lithe necks as their driver approached, and often put
down their tranquil heads towards his shoulder. Near
Smyra, and at Magnesia and Sardes, I have occasionally
seen a Camel follow his master like a pet dog, and go down
on his knees before him, as if inviting him to mount. I
neve: saw a Turk ill use the useful, gentle, amiable quadruped.
But I have frequently seen him give it a portion of his own
dinner, when, in unfavourable places, it had nothing but