Calomel

“ The poor camel bends his neck, and with a halter round his long nose, and several hundred-weight on his back, paces patiently along from the Nile to the Euphrates. Where on earth, or rather on sea, can we find a ship so adapted for such a voyage as his over those boundless oceans of desert sand? Is the camel thirsty—he has recourse to his gutta percha cistern, which holds as much water as will last a week, or, as some say, ten days even, if necessary. Is he hungry—give him a few handfuls of dried beans; it is enough; chopped straw is a luxury. ”

“ Can you wonder, then, that the air of Blue Town is made hideous with the shrieking of the camels as, to test their strength, they are made to kneel while one thing after another is piled on their backs, and made to rise under each new burden, until they can rise no longer?
"Sometimes while the camel is kneeling a man gets upon its hind-heels, and holds on by the long hair of its hump; if the camel can rise then, it is considered an animal of superior power"—according to the writer above quoted. ”

“ The camel stretches and twists and feels its food with this thick, split lip as if it were two fingers. He doesn't seem to look at his food at all. So you are quite ready to believe he has never learned not to eat poisonous plants that grow on the desert. A herd of browsing camels has to be watched as close as a flock of silly sheep.
Everything about a camel is as queer as if you had dreamed him in a nightmare. His neck and legs look too long and sprawling for his body. ”

“ The spongeous red growth of the ice-plant endures longest and further empurples the hills. This too will dry up and the bones of the limestone reappear. Then all will be quiet till the first winter rain, when the camels will be driven out to surface-plough. A rectangle is outlined on the soil and scattered with seed barley. Then the camel will shuffle up and down dragging after him a wooden plough that looks like a half-open penknife, and the Bedouin, guiding it, will sing tunes to the camel that he can only sing to the camel, because in his mind the tune and the camel are the same thing. ”

“ The camel is not only of greater value than the elephant but perhaps not of less than the horse, the ass, and the ox, when all their advantages are united. He carries as much as two mules, and not only eats less, but feeds on herbs as coarse as the ass. The female furnishes milk longer than the cow; the flesh of young camels is as good and wholesome as veal; their hair is finer, and more sought after than the best wool. ”

“ The word calumet is due to Father Marquette, and his description of this interesting Indian pipe and its uses among the Indians over two hundred years ago is best given in his own words:
“It now remains for me to speak of the calumet, than which there is nothing among them more mysterious or more esteemed. Men do not pay to the crowns and sceptres of kings the honor they pay to it. It seems to be the god of peace and war, the arbiter of life and death. Carry it about you and show it, and you can march fearlessly amid enemies, who even in the heat of battle lay down their arms when it is shown. ”

“ But in past ages vast numbers of camel-like forms lived in North America, which found their way on the one hand to the south, where the Llamas, Alpacas, and Guanacos now feed on the mountains of Peru and Chili, while on the other they travelled over Northern Asia to the deserts of Africa270 and Arabia, and there became those curious desert-animals which the Arabs used and still use as their beasts of burden. A strange old fellow is the camel, with his two-toed hairy feet, with only nail-hoofs upon them, and his hard pads on his thighs and legs, on which he rests when he lies or kneels. ”

“ To protect the camel against the shifting sands and the burning heat of the sun, nature has further fitted it for its peculiar home and life. It has the power to close its nostrils at will to keep out the sand. Long lashes protect its eyes, not only from the storms of wind and sand, but also from the glare and the heat.
From time immemorial the camel has been known as the beast of burden in India, Arabia, and Africa. This species, the one-humped camel, or dromedary, differs somewhat from that having two humps. The latter has been found in Central Asia, Persia, and the south of Russia. ”

“ The flesh of the young camel resembles veal, and is a favourite food of the Arabs, while camel’s milk forms an excellent and highly nutritious beverage, although it does not furnish butter. The long hair is shorn every summer, and woven into a variety of stuffs used by the Arab for clothing himself and his family, and covering his tent. It was in raiment of camel’s hair that John the Baptist appeared as a preacher. The hair imported into Europe is chiefly used in the manufacture of small brushes used by painters, while the thick hide is formed into a very durable leather. ”

“ A horse would be useless in the desert, where no oats or grass can be had; but the brave, patient camel goes steadily on without complaint till the oasis is reached: then he champs his thorn bushes, fills himself from the spring, allows the heavy pack to be fastened on his back again, and is ready for further travel.
Now you know what sort of a ship it is that I am going to tell you about. It was a camel, named Solimin. He was of a rare and valuable breed, known as "herie," or coursers, because they are so much swifter than ordinary camels. Solimin's master, Ahmed, was a poor man. ”

“ Finding, therefore, the camels would not rise, we killed two of them, and took so much flesh as might serve for the deficiency of bread, and, from the stomach of each of the camels, got about four gallons of water, which the Bishareen Arab managed with great dexterity. It is known to people conversant with natural history, that the camel has within him reservoirs in which he can preserve drink for any number of days he is used to. ”

“ A camel is a wonderful burden bearer, but even a double-humped ship of the desert will sink on your hands if you pile the load on him a bale of hay at a time."
"A worm, a straight road, a camel and a sinking ship," said I. "Whither are we drifting?"
Little Doc did not pay any attention to me. It is a way he has.
"Think," said he, "how much longer a camel will stand up under punishment if he gets his load straw by straw, as it were. The Ooley-cow was a good thing, but Uncle Billy and Old Man Sprott did not use any judgment. ”

“ On the 12th, at two in the morning, still half asleep, I mounted my camel and we resumed our route northward, over a level, hard and stony soil: I saw some mimosas scattered in the plain at great distances apart, without any other sign of vegetation. About nine, we descended, through a very narrow path, into a deep ravine, surrounded by enormous blocks of granite, of a pink and various other colours, in strata of eighteen or twenty inches thick. The camels, fatigued with so bad a road, had much difficulty in descending amongst these rocks. ”

“ On the road one of them remarks, “A camel has lately passed this way loaded with grain on one side, and with sweetmeats on the other.” The second observes, “and the camel is blind of one eye.” The third adds, “and it has lost its tail.” The owner comes up, and on hearing their description of his beast, forces them to go before the king of the country, to whom they explain how they discovered the defects of the camel and its lading. ”

“ The she-camel provides her master with food for both himself and his horses; for in an area, or season, where there is little water but an abundance of juicy grass in which the camel finds both food and drink, the camel's milk is given to the horses in lieu of water, the master's covering and tent are made of the hair, the waterless places are known to him through her. ”

“ To the children of America the camel is as strange and interesting as many of the fiercest wild animals. We know less about him than we do about bears. He tells you very little about himself, and he shows no curiosity about the crowds that visit his pen at the zoo. He gazes over people's heads in a dreamy way, just like that old stone sphynx head that stares across the desert in Egypt. One bright little boy once said: "A camel is a great, big, ugly puzzle." ”

“ When a bayra, a female camel, has given birth to five camels, the last being a male, her ears are bored and she is sent out to pasture, never more to be put to the rough work of caravaning. Like putting an old horse to pasture in perpetuity, it seems a humane act, and it solves the race question in the camel world, or would if the camels only knew the why and the wherefore.{183}
The camel’s feet are admirably made for the sands of the desert; they form by nature a sort of adapted ski or snow-shoe. ”

“ But if it did happen that his master had no food or drink to spare, the camel could still live for several days, using his hump for food, and the water in the cells of his stomach for drink.
The camel can do yet another wonderful thing. He can tell a long way off when he is coming to a place where there is water. In [140] the desert, after going over sand and sand for many days, a traveler sometimes finds a beautiful place called an oasis. ”

“ There the salt forms a firm and tenacious crust, on which the camel safely plants its foot. Sometimes the iron hoof of a horse breaks through, but beneath this first frail stratum it meets with another of astonishing hardness. “You might think yourself,” says a traveller, “on the Mer de Glace of Mont Blanc. Our camel-drivers collected some large pieces from the surface. Nothing can be more brilliant or more transparent than these crystals. It is by tasting them only that you can distinguish them from rock crystal. As we advance, the impression grows overpowering. ”

“ But a camel and a bullock, or a mule and a buffalo, are always quaint pairs. A camel in any case looks out of place when employed for draught work, his nature being so entirely to carry, not to pull. It is always a curious sight to see these great creatures kneel down to receive their burden, and the indignant way in which they look round and show their wicked teeth if they consider they are being overladen. ”

“ I said.
“Perhaps not,” said Captain Welfare. “But the natives won’t allow their camels to work in the heat.”
[127] “I thought a camel could stand any amount of heat!”
“Not them. They’re the softest beasts that walk. They drop in their tracks in the heat, and if it’s cold at night they have to be rugged up better than a horse.”
“There is more rot believed by people at home about camels,” said Edmund, “than about any beast of the field. What do you suppose is a camel’s load?” ”

“ We pass a loaded camel—one of ours—lying down. He insists, despite the vigorous persuasion of his syce, in remaining in that position. He is bored to death with the two water-tanks he is carrying; and when a camel makes up his mind to throw up the sponge nothing on earth will change it. I, therefore, give orders for the tanks to be emptied, Women from a passing kafila rush with their bowls and ask for the water. When it is all gone the camel is pleased to rise and proceeds grumblingly on his way. ”

“ There is a lustrous, suffused softness in the large hazel orb that is the rarest beauty in a human eye, and so remarkable is this feature in the camel, that I wonder it has never fallen into use as a poetical simile. They do not shun the gaze of man like other animals, and I pleased myself often when the suridjee slackened his pace, with riding close to some returning caravan, and exchanging steady looks in passing with the slow-paced camels. ”

“ I’m going to,” said the old white camel, and he indolently chose the biggest, juiciest bit and put it in his mouth. The little camel stood watching him enviously as he chewed, and licked his own parched lips thirstily.
“I don’t think I’d better,” he said. “My mother told me it wasn’t true about the sun being a pineapple, so perhaps there’s something queer about it.”
“Oh, mothers have so much on their minds that [80] they can’t remember any more what things are real and what aren’t,” said the old camel while the juices dribbled down his chin. ”

“ The hump of the camel is another wise provision to [Pg 28] enable the animal to endure the hardships of its long journeys, often on a very short supply of food. A few beans, dates, or carob pods are all the camel receives after a long day's march, when there is no herbage on which it can browse.
Shrubby plants, such as the camel's thorn, of which the animal is very fond, are all that the sterile sands of the desert can produce for its needs. ”

“ The camels are so well acquainted with the desert that, as soon as they are loaded, they take, as if by instinct, the northern course. It would seem that they are guided by the recollection of the springs of water which are found in that direction. I really believe that a traveller, though alone, might safely trust himself to the guidance of his camel. ”

“ In a Siberian version (Radloff) , three youths are met by a man who asks them if they had seen his camel, to which they reply by describing the colour and defects of the animal so exactly that he accuses them to the Prince of having stolen it. “I have lost a camel, my lord,” said he, “and when I met these three young men we saluted, and I told them that I had lost my camel. Quoth one of these youths, ‘Was thy camel of a light colour?’ The second asked, ‘was thy camel lame?’ And the third, ‘Was it not blind of an eye?’ I answered Yes to their questions. ”