The Camel
The _camel_ has very little to do with the kind of jungle I have been
telling you about; but he has much to do with the _desert_. A desert
is another kind of wild place. As I told you before, jungle means any
wild place; but usually, of course, there are lots of trees and bushes
and thickets in it. But we call the wild place a desert when trees and
bushes and thickets will not grow there, because the ground is all
covered with _sand_. In the desert there is nothing but sand all over
the ground, and not a single tree or a tiny blade of grass anywhere,
as far as you can see.
And that is the place where camels can do some very wonderful things,
as I shall now tell you. The camels do not actually live in the desert
all the time, but in countries quite near there.
First I must tell you that there is only one country to-day, called
Central Asia, where camels are still found wild. In all other places
they are not wild any more, for in those countries people have lived
for many thousand years; so the people caught all the camels once upon
a time, and tamed them.
Since that time the camels have been used by people in those countries
for their work, just as we use horses here; and rich people in those
countries count their wealth by the number of camels they have. Just
as we say here that a rich man has a million dollars, or two millions,
or three millions, so in those countries a man is thought to be rich
who has one thousand camels, or two thousand, or three thousand.
It was just the same in those countries in olden times. You have read
in your Bible history that Job was once a rich man, as he owned
thousands of camels.
You will see from the pictures facing page 128 that there are two
kinds of camels; one kind has a huge hump on the middle of his back;
and the other kind has two humps, with a gap between. The _One-Hump
camel_ is called an _Arabian camel_, or a _dromedary_. Once upon a
time he lived in the country called Arabia; that is the country from
where you get your lovely old stories of Ali Baba and Aladdin. But now
the One-Hump camel also lives in other countries near there. These
are all very hot countries, with many miles of desert here and there.
The _Two-Humps camel_ is called a _Bactrian camel_, as he lives in a
country which was once called Bactria. That country also has many
deserts, like Arabia; but as it is far to the north of Arabia, it is
very cold in winter, and the snow then lies very thick on the ground.
So try and remember this:
The One-Hump camel lives in a country where there are many miles of
desert, and where it is very hot almost the whole year. So the
One-Hump camel has to guard himself only from the _hot burning sand_.
The Two-Humps camel lives in a country where there are also many miles
of desert, but where it is very hot in the summer and very cold in the
winter. So the Two-Humps camel has to guard himself from the _hot
burning sand in the summer_, and from the _cold and snow in the
winter_.
The Two-Humps camel has in winter a coat of long, shaggy hair on his
back to guard him from the cold; and in summer the shaggy hair comes
off his back, just as if he were to cast off his thick coat. But the
One-Hump camel has only short hair, as the country is too hot all the
time to need a thick coat.
[Illustration: Bactrian Camel--with Two Humps]
[Illustration: Arabian Camel--with One Hump]
Now I must tell you how camels are used. First, they carry goods for
trade. In those countries there are hardly any railroads, so the
merchants carry their packages on camels. Of course they could not put
a package right on a camel's hump, as it would fall off; so they
always join two packages together with a band or belt, and sling the
band across the camel's back, so that there is a package on each side
of the camel.
When a One-Hump camel is used, the band or belt has two parts, like a
loop; and the loop rests over the hump, so that the band cannot slip
backward or forward. When a Two-Humps camel is used, the band of
course rests in the gap between the two humps, so that it cannot slip
at all; and then the two packages can be made very big. That is why
people like the Two-Humps camel better for carrying goods, and like
the One-Hump camel better for riding. But in some places the One-Hump
camel is used both for riding and for carrying goods.
In this way merchants carry their goods for many hundred miles across
desert and country. Then sometimes they come to the sea and send the
goods in ships to different countries. That is how you get many of the
figs, dates, and grapes you eat; so the next time you eat them, think
of the patient camel that brought them for you across the desert. That
is why the camel is called the _Ship of the Desert_.
The beautiful carpets and rugs and shawls which you see in rich homes
have also been brought by the patient camels; and some of the lovely
vases and ornaments that rich people have were also carried by camels.
And not only across the desert, but even over ordinary land camels
carry these goods. The camel is such a large animal that he can carry
packages as heavy as four men.
Of course when he carries such a heavy load, he cannot go any faster
than a man's walk; but the camel can keep on walking all day, with
just a short rest once in a while. Those used for riding cannot run as
fast as a horse, but they can keep on running at a steady trot much
longer than a horse, and then after a short rest can start running
again. So by the end of the day a camel can run twice as far as a
horse, and sometimes still farther.
_The Camel's Wonderful Gifts_
Now I am going to tell you of the most wonderful things a camel can
do.
First, I must tell you that no other animal could cross a desert at
all. To begin with, if such an animal as a horse tried to walk on the
sand, his hoofs would sink into the sand up to the ankles, and it
would be hard work for him to go even a mile. But a camel's foot is
different. It has a _soft pad of muscles_ under it, just like a
cushion; and when the camel walks or runs on the sand, the pad spreads
out under his foot, and that gives him a firm hold on the sand in
walking or running. So remember that the camel has padded feet.
I must tell you here that the feet of all animals are formed in the
way they can best use, in the country in which they live. Those
animals that have to walk on _hard ground_ have _hoofs_, and those
that have to walk on _soft ground_ have _padded feet_. The elephant is
the only animal that has to walk on hard ground, at least very often,
and yet has padded feet. Can you tell why? Because of his huge weight!
He is so heavy that if the bones under his feet were not covered with
a thick pad, he would jar the bones every time he put his foot down,
even if the ground were not very hard.
In the same way the camel's padded foot is very useful to him even
when he is not in the desert, but on hard ground; for he too is
rather heavy, though of course not so heavy as an elephant.
[Illustration: Sand Storm in the Desert]
There are other reasons why no other animal could cross a desert as
easily as a camel. In the desert there are sometimes fierce storms;
and as it is all sand there, the strong wind blows the sand about in
every direction. As there is no place there where one could get away
from the sand, any other animal would soon have a lot of sand blown
into his nostrils; then he would be choked. But a camel's nostrils are
made differently, so that whenever he likes he can _close his
nostrils_, as easily as you can close your mouths, and that keeps away
the sand. The camel is clever enough to lie down on the ground when a
storm is blowing, and to lay his neck and chin along the ground; then
his nose is quite close to the ground, where the storm is not quite so
fierce as in the air.
Of course, when he wants to breathe, he opens his nostrils a tiny bit
to take in a little air; then he closes the nostrils again, and holds
his breath for a little while. He has to keep on doing that as long as
the storm lasts.
But what does his master do, who has been riding on his back? He
cannot close his nostrils; so the only thing he can do is to get off
the camel and huddle against the camel's body on the side far from the
wind; then he brings his face quite close to the ground and holds his
nose with his hand. When he wants to breathe, he opens his fingers
just enough to make a slit and let the _air_ in, but not enough to let
the _sand_ in.
There is another reason why no other animal could cross a desert: his
eyes would be blinded by the fierce glare of the sun. But a camel has
very _thick hair on his eyebrows_, which hang over the eyes, and keep
off the fierce rays of the sun. His eyelashes also are very thick, and
help to keep off the sun in the same way.
But there is a still more wonderful reason why no other animal, except
a camel, could cross a desert. In a desert water is very scarce, and a
traveler crossing a desert on a camel may not find any water for a
whole week. Of course, he carries on his saddle half a dozen bottles
of water to drink; but after drinking some of the water each day, he
has not much to spare for the poor camel. Then what is the poor camel
to do?
Of course, you may say that his master should carry more water for the
camel to drink. But the load of goods which the camel has to carry is
already so heavy that there is not much room for any more water. Then
what _can_ the poor camel do?
Why, he _carries his own drinking water_, not in the load on his back,
but _inside his stomach_! Is not that a wonderful thing? His stomach
is made differently from that of any other animal. The stomach of any
other animal, Or even a man's stomach, is so made that the water drunk
at any time is all used up in the next few hours; that is why any
other animal, or even a man, has to have another drink after those few
hours.
But a camel's stomach is so made that it has one big place for food
and drink like the stomach of any other animal, but it also has many
smaller places arranged all around the stomach; these smaller places
are just like bottles, and are called _cells_.
So when a camel takes a good long drink, the big place in the middle
of the stomach takes in the water first; then as he drinks more and
more, the bottles or cells all around begin to get filled also. And
the wonderful thing is that as soon as each cell is full, its mouth
closes up by itself! In that way, if the camel drinks long enough, all
the cells get full, one by one, and then have their mouths closed up.
When a camel is about to start on a long journey through the desert,
he takes a very long drink, till he _feels_ that he cannot drink any
more; then he _knows_ that all the bottles or cells inside are quite
full, as well as the big place in the middle of his stomach. Now he is
ready to cross the desert.
After many hours all the water in the big place in the middle of the
stomach gets used up. Then what happens? Why, one of the bottles
inside opens its mouth by itself, and pours the water into the
stomach! And after many hours more, when _that_ water has also been
used up, the _second_ bottle opens its mouth and pours the water into
the stomach. In this way all the bottles or cells inside the camel one
by one pour their water into the stomach from day to day, whenever the
camel feels thirsty. Is not that most wonderful?
And there is yet another very wonderful thing about the camel. His
hump! It is just as wonderful whether it is one hump or two humps. I
shall tell you.
The camel's hump is his _store of food_! Yes, just as he carries his
own drinking water inside his stomach, so he also carries his own
store of food in his hump.
This is how he does it:
When the camel is quite well and strong, if he eats any food which is
a little more than he actually needs for his hunger, that food after a
while goes to his hump and helps to make it bigger. In this way the
hump becomes a store of all the extra food that he has eaten. Then, on
going on a long journey through the desert, if the camel has nothing
to eat and begins to feel hungry and weak, a little of the hump is
used up to give him strength, just as if he were to eat a meal. In
this way he can go for many days without food, but of course his hump
will get smaller and smaller.
[Illustration: Crossing the Desert with Camels]
But his master does not actually take him through the desert without
giving him _any_ food or drink; in fact he always gives the camel some
of the figs and dates which he takes with him for his own meals, and
also some of the drinking water which he carries on his saddle. 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 the desert,
after going over sand and sand for many days, a traveler sometimes
finds a beautiful place called an _oasis_. It is just like a lovely
little garden right in the middle of the desert, with a spring of
water, and several fig trees, date trees, and other palm trees growing
all around the pool.
When a traveler is crossing the desert and sees nothing but sand for
several days, it sometimes happens that his camel suddenly stops,
stands quite still for a minute, raises his head, and sniffs the air.
Then he turns a little to the right or to the left, and begins to run
straight that way. His master may look ahead very hard, but he will
see nothing but sand and sand, as before.
But the camel, by just sniffing the air, has found out that there is
an oasis within reach, though it is still too far away for him to see
it. Then he runs on most gladly, and comes to the oasis in an hour, so
that he and his master can rest there for some time, and drink from
the pool, and eat the figs and dates growing on the trees.
Of course, the camel can also eat the leaves of the trees; in fact,
when he is not in the desert, but just in the ordinary country, he
usually eats from the shrubs and bushes, and gets figs and dates only
as a dainty, just as you sometimes have ice cream. The camel with two
humps will gladly eat many more things than the camel with one hump.
In fact, when he is hungry, he will eat not only any kind of
vegetable, but also meat. He has even been known to chew up and eat
bones, blankets, and leather! And he is perhaps the _only animal that
will drink salt water_; for the country in which the Two-Humps camel
lives has several lakes, the water of which is bitter and salty.
So you see how useful an animal the camel is, whether he has one hump
or two humps. He is so useful that people have been saying for a long
time that camels should be brought into America, where there are
several deserts in the western states. In fact, a strange thing has
already happened. The United States Government did bring a lot of
camels for use in the western states several years ago, about the time
when your grandfather was a boy.
But the people who can best manage such large animals as elephants and
camels are the people who are born in the same countries as those
animals and who understand their habits. And unluckily, when the
camels were brought into America, nobody thought of bringing men also
from those countries to manage the camels. So nobody seemed to know
how to use these animals, and after a time they were turned loose in
Arizona. The camels went into the deserts and forests there, and
became quite wild, and to-day there are some of them in Arizona.
Now, do you not think it would be a good idea to get a few men from
those countries and learn from them how to manage camels? Then the
camels of Arizona also could be used in crossing the deserts there,
where there are no railroads.
Besides being the only animal that can cross the desert, the camel is
different from any other four-legged animal even in the way he walks.
You have seen how a horse walks? When his left foreleg is lifted off
the ground, his right hind leg is also lifted off the ground; then in
the next step, when his right foreleg is lifted off the ground, his
left hind leg is also lifted off the ground. That means that the two
legs which move at the same time are those placed at the _opposite
corners_ of his body. But when a camel walks, he lifts the two legs
on the _same side_ of his body at the same time. And when he takes the
next step, he lifts the two legs on the other side of his body.
Now, my dear, I have told you many things about the camel which are
different from anything in any other animal. So, before I close this
chapter, I want you to remember these things about the camel:
1. His _foot_ is _padded_ in such a way that he can walk or run on
sand.
2. He can _close_ his _nostrils_ to keep out the sand in a storm.
3. His _thick_ and bushy _eyebrows_ and _thick eyelashes_ keep the
glare of the sun from his eyes.
4. His stomach has many _cells_ like bottles, in which he can _store
up water_.
5. He can _store up food_ in his _hump_.
6. He walks by moving both legs on the _same side_ of his body at the
same time.
In another chapter I shall tell you about an animal that can also do
one of these things: he can _store up food_ in his body, though in a
different way. That animal is the _bear_. He sleeps through the whole
winter, and has to have a store of food somewhere in his body to last
all that time.