In Book the First I have spoken of the Camel properly so-called, or camel with two humps, which is peculiar to Central and Eastern Asia. The camel of Arabia and Africa is the dromedary. The latter is employed conjointly with the two-humped camel in the westernmost countries of Asia: in Egypt, and in Nubia, he is much more widely spread than his congener, which is nearly unknown in the rest of Africa. The dromedary has but one hump. His hair is soft, woolly, moderately long about the body, longer and much thicker on the hump, the head, the neck, and the shoulders. Its colour varies from a reddish-brown to a clear yellow. Zoologists recognize three varieties of this species:--The _Brown dromedary_, also called, but improperly, the Caucasian dromedary--he is brown, like the Bactrian camel, and his short squat limbs indicate strength rather than agility; the _White dromedary_, of a very transparent colour, and of slender figure; and the _Egyptian dromedary_, larger than either of the preceding, and with body and limbs uniformly clothed in short gray hair. But the Arabs distinguish only two races: the _Djemel_, or camel of burden, which is no other, probably, than the Caucasian dromedary; and the _Mahari_, or camel for the saddle and war, whose name seems to apply equally to the two other varieties. [Illustration: 1. The Mahari. 2. The Djemel.] The mahari is to the djemel what our chargers are to our carthorses, or, as the Arabs say, what the _djend_ (noble) is to the _kheddim_ (the servant). He has a very sure foot, a free, sustained, and rapid trot; he is sober, enduring, and courageous; a true courser, and the nomade's inseparable friend and companion. His training is a matter of the highest importance, and skilfully adapted to develop all his best qualities and highest faculties. The Arabs of the Tell assert that the maharis accomplish in one day ten times the march of a caravan, or a hundred leagues; but the best in blood and breeding do not generally exceed a daily journey of from thirty-five to forty leagues. The young mahari has his place in the Arab's tent. The children play with him; he is a recognized member of the family; custom and gratitude attach him to his masters, whom he divines to be his friends. If the djemel be not as noble as the mahari, he is not less useful. Without him, all relations would be suspended between the peoples of the Sahara; the Soudan, wide, populous, and fertile as it is, would be a _terra incognita_; he is the sole means of intercommunication possible in the arid wastes of the Desert. Alike living and dead, he is the fortune of his master.