Bactrian GameL •
of Central Asia, where eren now wild individuals may be found. The species extends through China, Tar- tary, and Russia, and is principally imported across the mountains into Asia Minor, Syria, and Persia. It is seldom seen at Aleppo (Russel, N. H. Aleppo^ ii, 170). One appears figured in the processions of the an- cient Persian satrapies among the bas-reliefs of Chehel Minar, where the Arabian species is not seen. It is also this species which, according to the researches of Burckhardt, constitutes the brown Taons variety of single-hunched Turkish or Toorkee camels commonly seen at Constantinople, there being a very ancient practice among breeders, not, it appears, attended with danger, of extirpating with a knife the foremost hunch of the animal soon after birth, thereby procuring more space for the pack-saddle and load. It seems that this mode of rendering the Bactrian cross-breed siniilar to the Arabian camel or dromedary (for Burckhardt mis- applies the last name) is one of the principal causes of the confusion and contradictions which occur in the descriptions of the two species, and that the various other intermixtures of races in Asia Minor and Syria, having for their object either to create greater powers of endurance of cold or of heat, of body to carry weight, or to move with speed, have still more perplexed the question. From these causes a variety of names has arisen, which, when added to the Arabian distinctions for each sex, and for the j'oung during every year of its growth, and even for the camels nursing horse- foals, has made the appellatives exceedingly numer- ous. We notice only —
2. The Arabian camel or dromedary (camelus drom- edariut or Arabiciu of naturalists, ^Da, beaker; and female and young H'lDa, bikrah% both "dromedary," Isac Ix, 6; Jer. ii, 28) is properly the species having naturally but one hunch, and considered as Gi West- em Asiatic \>r of African origin, although no kind of camel is figured on any monument of Egypt (Wilkin- son, Anc, Eg, i, 234), not even where there are rep- resentations of live-stock such as that found in a most ancient tomb beneath the pyramid of Gizeh, which shows herdsmen brining their cattle and domesticated animals to be numbered before a steward and his scribe, and in which we see oxen, goats, sheep, asses, geese, and ducks, but neither horses nor camels. That they were not indigenous in the early history of Egypt is ' countenanced by the mythical tale of the priests de- ! scribing ** the flight of Typhon, seven days' journey ' upon an ass." We find, however, camels mentioned in Grenesis xii ; but being placed laist among the cattle given by Pharaoh to Abraham, the fact seems to show I that they were not considered as the most important
part of his donation. This can be true only upon tlie supposition that but a few of these animals were deliv- ered to him, and therefore that they were still rare in the valley of the Nile, though soon after there is abun- dant evidence of the nations of Syria and Palestine having whole herds of them folly domesticated. These seem to imply that the genus Camelus was originally an inhabitant of the elevated deserts of Central Asia, its dense fur showing that a cold bat dry atmosphere was to be encountered, and that it came already domea- ticated, toward the south and west, with the oldest col- onies of mountaineers, who are to be distinguished from earlier tribes that subdued the ass, and perhaps from others still more andent, who, taking to the rivera, d»> soended by water, and afterward coasted and crossed narrow seas. Of the Arabian species two very distinct races are noticed ; those of stronger frame but slower pace used to carry burdens varying fix>m 500 to 700 weight, and travelling little more than twenty-four miles per day ; and those of lighter form, bred for the saddle with single riders, the fleetest serving to con- vey intelligence, etc., and travelling at the rate of 100 mUes in twenty-four hours. They are designated by several appellations, such as Ddotd^ the best coming
Arabian GameL
from Oman, or from the Bishareens in Upper Egypt ; also Hejin by the Turks, and still other names (e. g. Ashaartfj Maherry^ Regies, Bctdees at Herat, Rawahel, and Racambel) in India, all names more or less imply- ing swiftness, the same as dpofiac, noift; the diffisr- ence between them and a common camel being as great as that between a high-bred Arab mare and an English cart-horse (Layard, Nineveh and Bob, p. 292). Caravans of loaded camels have always scouts and flankers mounted on these light animals, and in earlier ages Cyrus and others employed them in the line of battle, each carrying two archers. The ftomans of the third and fourth centuries of our era, as appears from the ^^NotUiOf" maintained in Egypt and Pales- tine several oIcb or squadrons mounted on dromeda- ries ; probably the wars of Belisarius with the north- em Africans had shown their importance in protect- ing the provinces bordering on the desert ; such was the ala dromedariorum Antana at Ammata in the tribe of Judah, and three others in the Thebais (comp. 1 Sam. XXX, 17). Bonaparte formed a similar corps, and in China and India the native princes and the East India Company have them also.