DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0065
56
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
received opinion, as it had always been mine ; but
since I had been in the East, I had remarked that
it was exceedingly rare to meet a camel with two
humps. I had seen together at one time, on the
starting of the caravan of pilgrims for Mecca, per-
haps 20,000 camels and dromedaries, and had not
seen among them more than half a dozen with two
humps. Not satisfied with any explanation from
European residents or travellers, I had inquired
among the Bedouins ; and Toualeb, my old guide,
brought up among camels, had given such a strange
account that I never paid any regard to if. Now,
however, the sheik told me the same thing, name-
ly, that they were of different races, the drome-
dary being to the camel as the blood horse is to
the cart horse; and that the two humps were
peculiar neither to the dromedary nor the camel*
or natural to either; but that both are always
born with only one hump, which being a mere mass
of flesh, and very tender, almost as soon as the
young camel is born, a piece is sometimes cut out
of the middle for the convenience of better ar-
ranging the saddle ; and being cut out of the cen-
tre, a hump is left on either side of the cavity ; and
this, according to the account given by Toualeb, is
the only way in which two humps ever appear on
the back of camel or dromedary. I should not
mention this story if I had heard it only once ; but
precisely as I had it from Toualeb, it was con-
firmed, with a great deal of circumstantial detail*
by another Bedouin, who, like himself, had lived
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
received opinion, as it had always been mine ; but
since I had been in the East, I had remarked that
it was exceedingly rare to meet a camel with two
humps. I had seen together at one time, on the
starting of the caravan of pilgrims for Mecca, per-
haps 20,000 camels and dromedaries, and had not
seen among them more than half a dozen with two
humps. Not satisfied with any explanation from
European residents or travellers, I had inquired
among the Bedouins ; and Toualeb, my old guide,
brought up among camels, had given such a strange
account that I never paid any regard to if. Now,
however, the sheik told me the same thing, name-
ly, that they were of different races, the drome-
dary being to the camel as the blood horse is to
the cart horse; and that the two humps were
peculiar neither to the dromedary nor the camel*
or natural to either; but that both are always
born with only one hump, which being a mere mass
of flesh, and very tender, almost as soon as the
young camel is born, a piece is sometimes cut out
of the middle for the convenience of better ar-
ranging the saddle ; and being cut out of the cen-
tre, a hump is left on either side of the cavity ; and
this, according to the account given by Toualeb, is
the only way in which two humps ever appear on
the back of camel or dromedary. I should not
mention this story if I had heard it only once ; but
precisely as I had it from Toualeb, it was con-
firmed, with a great deal of circumstantial detail*
by another Bedouin, who, like himself, had lived