THE CAMEL, 195

chopped straw to eat. I have sometimes seen the drivers
on a hot day, or in passing a dry district, spirt a little
water in the Camel’s nostrils; they pretend it refreshes them.”

Camel Riding. Camel riding is evidently an exercise which
needs getting used to. Mrs. Bowdich says: “High saddles
are placed on their backs; and it requires either to be used
to them, or to be particularly careful, not to be half-killed
at starting. The rider places himself in the saddle while
the animals are kneeling; and when they raise their hind-
legs, which they do first of all, they send the unprepared
traveller forwards, and his breath is almost taken out of him
by the blow which he receives upon his chest; then as they
get upon their fore-legs they throw him back, so as to
andanger his spine. Their pace is at first very disagreeable,
being so long and slouching.”

Captain Riley describes his experiences as follows: “They
placed me on the largest Camel I had yet seen, which was
nine or ten feet in height. The Camels were now all
kneeling or lying down, and mine among the rest. I thought
IT had taken a good hold, to steady myself while he was
rising; yet his motion was so heavy, and my strength so far
exhausted, that I could not possibly hold on, and tumbled
off over his tail. Turning entirely over, I came down upon
my feet, which prevented my receiving any material injury,
though the shock to my frame was very severe.”

A Camel's Mr. Palgrave who combats the idea of the

Revenge. camel’s docility, unless stupidity may be taken
as its synonym, gives a painful illustration of the savagery to
which the camel may be provoked by cruel treatment, though
we doubt if the elephant who is proverbial for his docility
would stand the brutality to which the camel is sometimes
treated. “A lad of about fourteen, had conducted a large
camel laden with wood from one village to another, half an
hour’s distance or so. As the animal loitered or tumed out
of the way, its conductor struck it repeatedly, and harder