The sacrifice of the camel in Arabia, about the period of the fourth
century, is thus described: "The camel chosen as the victim is bound
upon a rude altar of stones piled together, and when the leader of
the band has thrice led the worshippers round the altar in a solemn
procession accompanied with chants, he inflicts the first wound while
the last words of the hymn are still upon the lips of the congregation,
and in all haste drinks of the blood that gushes forth. Forthwith
the whole company fall on the victim with their swords, hacking off
pieces of the quivering flesh and devouring them raw, with such wild
haste that in the short interval between the rise of the day-star,
which marked the hour for the service to begin, and the disappearance
of its rays before the rising sun, the entire camel, body and bones,
skin, blood and entrails, is wholly devoured." [367]
In this case the camel was offered as a sacrifice to Venus or the
Morning Star, and it had to be devoured while the star was visible. But
it is clear that the camel itself had been originally revered,
because except for the sacrifice it was unlawful for the Arabs to
kill the camel otherwise than as a last resort to save themselves from
starvation. "The ordinary sustenance of the Saracens was derived from
pillage or from hunting and from the milk of their herds. Only when
these supplies failed they fell back on the flesh of their camels, one
of which was slain for each clan or for each group which habitually
pitched their tents together--always a fraction of a clan--and the
flesh was hastily devoured by the kinsmen in dog-like fashion, half
raw and merely softened over the fire." [368] In Bhopal it is stated
that a camel is still sacrificed annually in perpetuation of the
ancient rite. Hindus who keep camels revere them like other domestic
animals. When one of my tent-camels had broken its leg by a fall and
had to be killed, I asked the camelman, to whom the animal belonged,
to shoot it; but he positively refused, saying, 'How shall I kill
him who gives me my bread'; and a Muhammadan orderly finally shot it.