Story of the Bible Animals: A Description of the Habits and Uses of every living Creature mentioned in the Scriptures, with Explanation of Passages in the Old and New Testament in which Reference is made to themWood, J. G. (John George)
Religion
Story of the Bible Animals: A Description of the Habits and Uses of every living Creature mentioned in the Scriptures, with Explanation of Passages in the Old and New Testament in which Reference is made to them
Wood, J. G. (John George)
Animals in the Bible; Nature in the Bible
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.
Mr. Kennard had a very narrow escape with one of these arch ways.
"I had passed beneath one or two in perfect safety, without being
obliged to do more than just bend my head forward, and was in
the act of conversing with one of my companions behind, and was
therefore in a happy state of ignorance as to what was immediately
before me, when the shouting and running together of the people in
the street on either side made me turn my head quickly, but only
just in time to feel my breath thrown back on my face against the
keystone of a gateway, beneath which my camel, with too much way on
him to be stopped immediately, had already commenced to pass.
"With a sort of feeling that it was all over with me, I threw
myself back as far as I could, and was carried through in an almost
breathless state, my shirt-studs actually scraping along against the
stonework. On emerging again into the open street, I could hardly
realize my escape, for if there had been a single projecting stone
to stop my progress, the camel would have struggled to get free, and
my chest must have been crushed in."
It will be seen from these instances that the charge of stupidity
is not an undeserved one. Still the animal has enough intellect to
receive all the education which it needs for the service of man, and
which it receives at a very early age. The ordinary Camel of burden
is merely taught to follow its conductor, to obey the various words
and gestures of command, and to endure a load. The Deloul, however,
is more carefully trained. It is allowed to follow its mother for
a whole year in perfect liberty. Towards the expiration of that
time the young animal is gradually stinted in its supply of milk,
and forced to browse for its nourishment. On the anniversary of its
birth, the young Deloul is turned with its head towards Canopus,
and its ears solemnly boxed, its master saying at the same time,
"Henceforth drinkest thou no drop of milk." For this reason the
newly-weaned Camel is called Lathim, or the "ear-boxed." It is then
prevented from sucking by a simple though cruel experiment. A wooden
peg is sharpened at both ends, and one end thrust into the young
animal's nose. When it tries to suck, it pricks its mother with
the projecting end, and at the same time forces the other end more
deeply into the wound, so that the mother drives away her offspring,
and the young soon ceases to make the attempt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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