CALVARY See Golgotha.
CALVES OF THE LIPS (Hos 14').— See Lip.
CAMEL. — While the Arabic has scores of words for tlie camel and its varieties and states, the Heb. words are but two —
(1) Sjj gAmAl, (td/tijXo?, camelus ; the generic name for the camel, preserved exactly in the Arab, jamal, and in all W. languages. It is one of the earliest mentioned beasts in the Bible. Abraham had large numbers of camels (Gn 24i° etc.) ; also Jacob (Gn 30" 31" 32'' ") ; they were carriers between Arabia and Egypt (Gn Zl'"') ; the Ethiopians (Cushites) had camels in abundance (2 Ch 14'^) ; also the queen of Sheba (1 K 10^) ; Job had 3000 (Job V), then 6OOO (42'^) ; the Midianitos and Amalekites had them 'as the sand by the seaside for multitude' (Jg 7'-). No one who has not travelled in the deserts where camels are reared can realise the force of the latter passage. In a waterless waste of sand and flint chips, with nothing but the salty shrubs of the desert for pasture, immense droves of camels find a subsistence, and, when not worked, become fat on their diet of tliorns and salsolas, with an occasional mouthful of tamarisk. They have been steadily employed, not only to traverse the deserts, but in the internal traffic of Pal. and Syria and Asia Minor. David captured a large number of thera from the Geshurites, Girzites, and Amalekites (I S 27"). Benhadad used thera in Damascus (2 K 8°).
The camel was used for riding (Gn 24" 31'' ; camel's furniture means the sort of palanquin in which R.achel rode, called in Arab. imucUij, ana still used for women and children). Tike Amale- kites and the Midianites used them, as the Arabs now do, in war (Jg V, 1 S 30"). They \yere even used to draw chariots (Is 21'). The trappings of riding camels were sometimes ornamented with gold (J- 8=').
Tlie Hebrews were expressly forbidden to eat camel's flesh (Lv 11*, Dt 14'). It is, however, eaten by the Arabs of the desert, and in the towns bordering on it. It is coarse, but not unpalatable nor uinnioleaorae. The Arabs also use camel's milk, fresh and in the form of clabber. Its use is not mentioned in the Bible. 'Thirty milch camels, with their colts ' (Gn 32"), were given by
• Written thus, according to Mr. Pinches' correction of th« tJihlct.
CAMEL
CAMELS HAIK
345
Jacob to E.sau, who was a Bedawi. Both probably drank camel's milk, although this is not necessarily implied in the passage. Even if Jacob's descend- ants applied the prohibition to use camel's flesh to the milk also, Jacob was not under this law.
The skins of camels are used for .sandals, and were prol)ably always so used. Camel's hair was spun and woven into cloth (Mt 3*, Mk 1"). Elijah, the forerunner of John, may well have had a similar mantle (1 K 19"- '"). The ' rough garment,' AVm 'garment of hair,' RV 'hairy mantle' (Zee 13'), may have been of camel's hair or of goat's hair.
The camel is always loaded, and usually mounted, in the kneeling pcsture (Gn 24"). The pack- saddle is usually of the cross-tree form. The load, on level ground, may be as heavy as 600 lbs. or more. In hilly districts, and over stony roads, the load is lessened. In going up from Ain-Jidi to Jeras. there is a steei) part of the road where the cameleers take ofl" their loads and carry them up the rocks on their backs, and lead the camels up and reload them at the top. There are cal- losities under the camel's breast, his fore and hind knees, and on the sole of his foot. The ' stable for camels' (Ezk 25') is a kneeling place. The signal to kneel is a tap with a stick on the camel's neck ; and to rise, a jerk of his halter, with a mono- syllabic k/iikh. "The foot is padded with a thick elastic mass of fibrous tissue, which makes the step noiseless, and protects from the angular flint chips and thorns, over which so much of his way lies. The breadth of the camel's foot prevents him from sinking into the sand. On the other hand, the broad and comparatively smooth surface of the sole makes it very slippery on rocks, or in clayey and muddy places. Camels often have disastrous falls on such roads.
The camel has a provision for storing water in a •npplementary cavity in his stomach. This water can be absoroed, or passed into the alimentary canal as needed. Besides this, he h.as a supply of nourishment in his hump, which is a storehouse of fat, reserved for the long fasts or insufficient pro- vender which are so often his lot. The Arabian camel has one hump, and the Bactrian two. Bactrian camels sometimes appear in N. Syria. Nothing in the way of pasture, however dry or succulent, comes amiss to the camel. He is also fed on cut straw, and kirsenneh, a sort of lentils, horse beans, and sometimes barley. If water is convenient, and he has no access to succulent forage, he will drink every day, or once in two days. The Arabs have a peculiar whoop, 'oowha,' by w-hich they call camels to water. The latter ohen go a week or more without water. To keep the camel's body from vermin, the Arabs anoint it with tar, the smell of which, with the emanations from the skin, is certainly most unsavoury. They are ill-natured, quarrelsome animals, and in the rutting season often dangerous. The Hte of a camel is often quite poisonous, producing death from septicjeraia. An enraged camel has been known to bite off the top of a man's skull.