Bible animals : $b being a description of every living creature mentioned in the Scripture, from the ape to the coral.Wood, J. G. (John George)
Religion
Bible animals : $b being a description of every living creature mentioned in the Scripture, from the ape to the coral.
Wood, J. G. (John George)
Animals in the Bible; Nature in the Bible
Still it is not a clever animal. If its master should fall off its
back, it never dreams of stopping, as a well-trained horse would do,
but proceeds at the same plodding pace, leaving his master to catch it
if he can. Should it turn out of the way to crop some green
thorn-bush, it will go on in the same direction, never thinking of
turning back into the right road unless directed by its rider. Should
the Camel stray, "it is a thousand to one that he will never find his
way back to his accustomed home or pasture, and the first man who
picks him up will have no particular shyness to get over; ... and the
losing of his old master and of his former cameline companions gives
him no regret, and occasions no endeavour to find them again."
He has the strongest objection to being laden at all, no matter how
light may be the burden, and expresses his disapprobation by growling
and groaning, and attempting to bite. So habitual is this conduct that
if a kneeling Camel be only approached, and a stone as large as a
walnut laid on its back, it begins to remonstrate in its usual manner,
groaning as if it were crushed to the earth with its load.
The Camel never makes way for any one, its instinct leading it to plod
onward in its direct course. What may have been its habits in a state
of nature no one can tell, for such a phenomenon as a wild Camel has
never been known in the memory of man. There are wild oxen, wild
goats, wild sheep, wild horses, and wild asses, but there is no spot
on the face of the earth where the Camel is found except as the
servant of man. Through innate stupidity, according to Mr. Palgrave,
it goes straight forwards in the direction to which its head happens
to be pointed, and is too foolish even to think of stopping unless it
hears the signal for halt.
As it passes through the narrow streets of an Oriental city, laden
with goods that project on either side, and nearly fill up the
thoroughfare, it causes singular inconvenience, forcing every one who
is in front of it to press himself closely to the wall, and to make
way for the enormous beast as it plods along. The driver or rider
generally gives notice by continually calling to the pedestrians to
get out of the way, but a laden Camel rarely passes through a long
street without having knocked down a man or two, or driven before it a
few riders on asses who cannot pass between the Camel and the wall.
One source of danger to its rider is to be found in the low archways
which span so many of the streets. They are just high enough to permit
a laden Camel to pass under them, but are so low that they leave no
room for a rider. The natives, who are accustomed to this style of
architecture, are always ready for an archway, and, when the rider
sees an archway which will not allow him to retain his seat, he slips
to the ground, and remounts on the other side of the obstacle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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