Camlet

“ Round them grow reeds and tamarisks, and even in other places near the mountains some vegetation struggles for existence.
This is the country of wild camels. Wild camels live in herds of half a dozen head. The leader is a dark-brown stallion; the mares are lighter in colour. Their wool is so soft and fine that it is a pleasure to pass one's hand over it. Several herds or families are often seen grazing on the same spot. They look well-fed, and the two humps are firm and full of fat. In spring and summer they can go without water for eight days, in winter for two weeks. ”

“ The camel’s ears are very small so that he can close them when the desert storm begins and the sand-drifts come like a snow-storm. But his nostrils are large for breathing and yet can be closed up tight during the fearful simoom or hot desert winds. His eyes are protected by heavy, overhanging lids against the direct rays of the noon sun, and his cushioned feet are adapted for the ease of the rider and of the animal himself. Five horny pads, one on each knee, and one under the breast, support the animal when kneeling to receive a burden or when he rests on the hot sand. ”

“ Now I see a few camels stalking silently, slowly, and sedately on, variously laden—some with baskets of large stones for building purposes, others with long pieces of timber on each side, others with skins of water and so on; then an Arab lady on donkey-back, riding after the manner of men, and covered from head to foot in unsightly black wrappers, having just a slit in them, through which can be seen a large pair of lustrous dark eyes, and down the bridge of her nose are some brass-looking ornaments, resembling as much as anything a row of thimbles inserted in one another. ”

“ It is as monstrous as anything in Dore's illustrations of the Contes Drolatiques and, wherever it wanders, the eye comes back at last to its fantastic bulk. There is no greenery on the rock, nothing but fierce sunlight or black shadow. A line of red hills forms the background of the city, and this is as bare as [Pg 108] the picked bones of camels that lie bleaching on the sand below.
Wherever the eye falls, it sees a camel or a string of camels—lean, racer-built sowarri camels, or heavy, black, shag-haired trading ships bent on their way to the Railway Station. ”

“ The camels grazed on fresh šaʻrân and rimṯ. The sun was scorching, the rocks and sand so hot that it was painful to touch them with the bare hand or foot. The camels, having drunk their fill at al-Ḳena’, were craving for pasture, but there was none in the šeʻîb of Ammu Nṣejb. I climbed up the slope and in a rather small hollow discovered a fairly extensive space with a growth of fresh šaʻrân, but our camels were so tired that they could not get up the steep declivity. After several vain attempts one camel after the other knelt down in order at least to rest, if it could not satisfy its hunger. ”

“ When receiving his load or his rider, he lies on his belly, the legs gathered under him, and during the process or even in anticipation of it, gives forth the most horrible moans or growls. Anything more hideous than the voice of a camel when he is discontented can scarcely be conceived; the tone varies from the grunting of a pig in extremis, to the last braying note of a donkey, or the deep growl of a lion; and during the daily processes of getting ready for the march, the chorus produced by some thirty camels receiving their loads is something too horrible for description. ”

“ Speaking in a collective sense, the Camel is much more than an ordinary animal unit in a zoological park. On the high plains of central and southwestern Asia, and throughout the arid regions of Africa, it is an institution. Without it, many portions of the Old World would be uninhabitable by man. Take either Dromedary or Bactrian Camel, and it is a sad-eyed, ungainly, slow-moving creature, full of plaints and objections; but remember that it goes so far back toward the foundations of man’s dynasty, that beside it the oldest American history seems but a record of yesterday. ”

“ There were seventy camels, soft-eyed gentle creatures, whose flat feet held them up on the soft sand like snowshoes. They bore packs upon their backs which promised good things, and they came straight to the cell of Fronto, where they stopped. And what a welcome they received! The monks threw their arms about the beasts' necks, as they knelt on the sand, and kissed the soft noses as though they were greeting long-lost brothers. They were so glad to see the camels themselves that they almost forgot to wonder whence they came, or what they were bringing. ”

“ Our caravan consisted of some fifty camels, of which about thirty-five carried the baggage and water; a dozen were ridden by ourselves, Mr Wells’ police, our native assistants, and others; and two or three belonged to the Shêkh and the guides.
The business of setting out is always trying to the patience. The camelmen attempt to load their beasts lightly in order that more may be employed; they dawdle over the packing that the day’s journey may be short; the camels, unused to their burdens, perform such antics as may rid them the most quickly of the incubus ”

“ Then she watched a more steady dust-cloud, of a different form, that was wending its way slowly among the clumps of scrub and stunted bushes; and presently there came into view a string of camels led by a great beast hung with gaudy trappings, ridden by a figure swathed in white garments, heavily turbaned. On they came, a silent, stately procession, moving as though to the rhythm of a funeral march, men striding beside them in flowing garments or seated between the great bales slung on either side of the camels' humps. ”

“ Though we generally attach the term ‘camel’ to that species of the camelus found in India, where great numbers are bred by persons who make a very large profit from their labors, the animal under consideration, having but one hump, or bunch, on its back, should, properly, be called a ‘dromedary.’ Whatever may be the true designation, the utility of the animal in a climate, and on a soil, to which it is so admirably suited by nature, is indisputable ”

“ Our camels have been the making of hundreds of boys by their tank-like capacity to hold water. One boy at Richmond, Va., got it on me by getting a section of fire hose and hitching it to a hydrant, and letting the water run into a trough at the camel stand in the menagerie, and before I knew it the camels had filled up until they were swelled four times as big as they ought to be. ”

“ Our caravan left Leet in the evening, and we began our march into the desert. Most of the camels carried only burdens, especially water, ammunition, the machine guns, and provisions. The water prospects for our journey were far from favorable. I had to [163] reckon with the possibility of traveling for days without being able to replenish our water supply.
A journey on camels is necessarily a slow one. To begin with, the camel is not a speedy traveler; furthermore, ours was a caravan of ninety camels at the start, and later, of one hundred and ten. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is the shadows of the camels moving towards Mecca. How silently they slip over the ground, beautiful shadows. Soon they are out in the desert flat on the golden sands. And then the sun will set and they will be one with night.
Chamberlain:
If your Majesty has time for such things there are the camels themselves.
King:
No, no, I do not wish to watch the camels. They can never take me out to the beautiful desert to be free forever from cities. Here I must stay to do the work of a King. Only my dreams can go, and the shadows of the camels carry them, to find peace by the tents of the Arabs. ”

“ I have often noticed how much camels like society; under favourable conditions—that is to say when travelling in good camel-country like the Southern goldfields—they will feed for an hour or so before dark, then slowly make their way with clattering hobble-chains and clanging bells back to the camp-fire, and there, with many grunts of satisfaction, lie peacefully until just before daylight, when they go off for another feed. On moonlight nights they like to roam about and pick choice morsels of bush on and off until daylight. ”

“ When caught young, wild camels are easily tamed and taught to carry a pack.
Their voice, very rarely heard, is a deep, lowing noise; in this way the dams call their young; males, even during the rutting season, utter no sound, but find their consorts by scent.
We were unable to learn the duration of a camel's life; some are known to live to a great age. Our hunter-guide once chanced to kill a he-camel, with teeth completely worn down, notwithstanding which the animal was in good condition. ”

“ A drove of camels, under the care of a half naked Arab driver, is approaching in one direction, sniffing the air, as they come on, with a solemn mixture of patient stupidity and apparent pride, and gracefully arching their long necks over you as they proceed on their way. ”

“ With the approach of winter an antediluvian rival is introduced upon the scene, in the shape of the well-known two-humped camel, which is then shaggy, dignified, and in really grand form. Intolerant of heat, but impervious to cold, the camels, after passing the summer on the grass-lands of the Mongolian plateau, are brought down in droves to the great fair held on a large open space outside the Northern Wall. The coming of the camels with their bronzed and heavily booted riders is like a whiff of the free air of the desert. ”

“ The Orientalists call the camel the ship of the desert, alluding to the heavy loads which it carries.
Large camels generally carry 1000, or even 1200lbs. weight, and the smaller 6 or 700. In these commercial journeys, they do not travel quick, and as the route is often seven or eight hundred leagues, they regulate their motions and journeys; they only walk, and go every day ten or twelve leagues; they are unloaded every evening, and are suffered to feed at liberty. ”

“ When you see a camel open his mouth and give vent to a loud gurgling sound, a large red-coloured inflated bag as big as a good-sized melon appearing at the same time from his throat, my advice would be, to those who are strangers to camels, to stand off! A well-bred camel may be known by the fineness of his coat and the smallness of his hind feet.
The camels from India came accompanied by native drivers, and a certain number of transport officers from the Indian Transport Staff. ”

“ Train after train wound slowly along. The camels travel single file, fastened from saddle to saddle.
Until I came to Turkey, I had seen few camels outside of a Zoo. The only loose one I remember is the camel ridden in Paris by the beggar that used to haunt the Place Saint-Michel. No two camels are alike. In a hundred that pass, each is different from the one ahead, very different. Camels are just as different as people. ”

“ The finest young sawārī camels, that have never been debased by carrying any burthen greater than two or three Persian cats, are brought down in droves by the Arabs from Cabul; one man has usually charge of three camels; they travel in single file, the nose of one being attached to the crupper of another by a string passed through the cartilage. They browse on leaves in preference to grazing. It was a picturesque scene, that toilet of the camel, performed by the Mahratta girls, and they enjoyed the tamāshā. ”

“ Each rises back end first, the bags swaying to and fro as he does so. How angry he is! He goes off with his lower lip hanging down, grumbling and groaning like a spoiled child. The camels make queer figures as they travel. The bags on each side their backs reach almost to the ground, so that the lumbering creatures seem to be walking on six legs apiece. ”

“ All creatures that chew the cud have two toes, or are what is called cloven-footed. The Camel, whose home is in the dry and thirsty desert, has the power of storing up water, and bringing it back into its mouth for several days after it has drunk it. This enables it to make long journeys, without needing a brook by the way. Its feet, too, are just fitted for the sandy wastes which it has to tread. The one-humped camel is found in Africa, and the two-humped, or Bactrian camel, in Asia. ”

“ The camels, already worn out by the heavy sand-hills, have the stony desert to pass; the sharp points bruise their feet, and they totter, and fall under their heavy loads: the people, too, suffer severely from the scanty portion of provisions, mostly dates, that can be brought on by these tired animals,—and altogether it is nine days of great distress and difficulty. ”

“ Like all inhabitants of vast plains, the Kalmucks have exceedingly keen sight. An hour after sunset they can still distinguish a camel at a distance of three miles or more. Very often when I perceived nothing but a point barely visible on the horizon, they clearly made out a horseman armed with his lance and gun. They have also an extraordinary faculty for wending their way through their pathless wildernesses. Without the least apparent mark to guide them, they traverse hundreds of miles with their flocks, without ever wandering from the right course. ”

“ I, with the little child, left for home on June 7th, viâ Genoa, well provided with a good stock of studies of camels and Camel Corps troopers. These were for my 8-foot picture, destined for the next Academy. Many a camel had I stalked about the Ramleh desert to watch its mannerisms in movement. I got quite to revel in camels. Usually that interesting beast is made utterly uninteresting in pictures, whereas if you know him personally he is full of surprises and one never gets to the end of him. ”