The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-04-04
The Ship OF the Eesert.

lnlS Is Lne uulle given III tlt i-stot w
the camel, which is one of the greatest
blessings the bountiful Creator has be-
slowed upon the oriental nations. De-
signed for country where it can find
little nourishment, it Is extremely spare
in the whole of it's formation. The head
is small the body covered with soft
and rather long hair of n reddish color
Its legs and thighs seem to be deprived
of every muscle but such as are wanted
for the purpose of motion and its with
cred frame seems furnished only with
the vessels and tendons necessary to hold
it together The camel is provided, more
over, with strong jaw, that he may
grind the hardest food but, lest he
should eat too much, his stomach is con-
tracted, so that, like cows and sheep, he
is obliged to chew the cud. There are
two toes on his hoof, which however, is
not fully divided. He has often to cross
deserts of loose and deep sand in which
hoof quite divided would have sunk
too far, while the one which he has, being
entire in the under part, enables him to
move over the surface with more ease.
His foot is lined with lump of flesh,
which fits him only for a dry, level, and
sandy soil
Without any sort of defense against
his enemies, the camel is obviously in
tended for domesticated state, like that
in which the sheep and some other AMI
mails live; but the wise Creator has
placed his home in the depth of vast
deserts, where the wait of vegetation
can attract no game, and where, IN con-
sequence, voracious creatures, such AZ
lions, tigers, leopards, and wolves, can
have no inducement to prowl. The fugi-
tives from Babel found this invaluable
beast of burden wandering on the edge
of the wilderness, and by its assistance
peopled the most barren regions on the
face of the globe. No animal employed
by man for the purposes of traffic equals
it in size, in strength, in activity, and in
docility, patience, and power of endur-
ance, it is surpassed by none. Like the
ass, it is pleased with the coarsest food,
and very little even of that satisfies its
moderate appetite. The labor and ia
tigue which it is capable of enduring, on
the poorest and scantiest means of sub
sistence, almost exceed belief. IT will
travel four or five days without water !;
whilst half gallon of beans and barley,
or else few balls made of the flour, will
sustain it whole day. Before drinking,
it disturbs the water with its feet /; and
then, after the manner of pigeons, takes
several successive draughts.
In travelling over the deserts of Arabia,
full-sized camel will carry a weight of
more than thousand pounds he re-
ceives this load kneeling, but if his driver
lays more on him, he refuses to rise till
the burden is lessened.
This animal has sometimes been yoked
to a chariot, and forced to contend in the
race. The Emperor Nero sent to certain
games chariots drawn by camels ; and
another Roman Emperor, Heliogabalus,
is reported to have amused himself i'll
his private circus with chariots drawn by
the same number To this custom the
prophet Isaiah alludes, in his prophecy
of the fall of Babylon He saw a
chariot with couple of horsemen, a
chariot of asses, and chariot of camels. y
In time of war, too, these useful crea-
lures have been pressed into the service
of conflicting hosts they then groaned
under the cumbrous baggage of Oriental
armies, or mingled i'll the tumult of bat
tie. Many of the Amalekites, who
burned Ziklag, 4 Samuel xxx. u, were
mounted IN this manner, for we are told
(ver. I'D that not a man of the whole
army escaped the furious onset of David,
"saye four hundred young men, which
rode upon camels, and fed +" The Arab
ians used to set two warriors upon each
animal, back to back, of whom one op-
posed the advancing enemy, and the
other repealed the pursuer. All the
Arabians in the army of Xerxes, the an
cient historian Herodotus says, were
mounted ON camels that equaled in speed
the swiftest horses. The people called
Bactrians, from the name of the province
AN Persia in which they lived, also fought
in the same manner and the Parthians,
in their wars with the Romans, threw
incessant showers of arrows from their
horses and camels on the legions of their
terrible foe. -..
Mounted on this ship of the desert, -
the traveller in the East pursues his way
over vast and trackless regions with ease
and safety. For his convenience, couple
of round baskets are slupg on each side
with covers, which hold all his neces.
saries. and between which he is seated.
Sometimes two long chairs, like cradles,
are hung on each side, with covering