The camel has very little to do with the kind of jungle I have been telling you about; but he has much to do with the desert. A desert is another kind of wild place. As I told you before, jungle means any wild place; but usually, of course, there are lots of trees and bushes and thickets in it. But we call the wild place a desert when trees and bushes and thickets will not grow there, because the ground is all covered with sand. In the desert there is nothing but sand all over the ground, and not a single tree or a tiny blade of grass anywhere, as far as you can see.

And that is the place where camels can do some very wonderful things, as I shall now tell you. The camels do not actually live in the desert all the time, but in countries quite near there.

First I must tell you that there is only one country to-day, called Central Asia, where camels are still found wild. In all other places they are not wild any more, for in those countries people have lived for many thousand years; so the people caught all the camels once upon a time, and tamed them.

Since that time the camels have been used by people in those countries for their work, just as we use horses here; and rich people in those countries count their wealth by the number of camels they have. Just as we say here that a rich man has a million dollars, or two millions, or three millions, so in those countries a man is thought to be rich who has one thousand camels, or two thousand, or three thousand.

It was just the same in those countries in olden times. You have read in your Bible history that Job was once a rich man, as he owned thousands of camels.

You will see from the pictures facing page 128 that there are two kinds of camels; one kind has a huge hump on the middle of his back; and the other kind has two humps, with a gap between. The One-Hump camel is called an Arabian camel, or a dromedary. Once upon a time he lived in the country called Arabia; that is the country from where you get your lovely old stories of Ali Baba and Aladdin. But now the One-Hump camel also lives in other countries near there. These are all very hot countries, with many miles of desert here and there.

The Two-Humps camel is called a Bactrian camel, as he lives in a country which was once called Bactria. That country also has many deserts, like Arabia; but as it is far to the north of Arabia, it is very cold in winter, and the snow then lies very thick on the ground. So try and remember this:

The One-Hump camel lives in a country where there are many miles of desert, and where it is very hot almost the whole year. So the One-Hump camel has to guard himself only from the hot burning sand.

The Two-Humps camel lives in a country where there are also many miles of desert, but where it is very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. So the Two-Humps camel has to guard himself from the hot burning sand in the summer, and from the cold and snow in the winter.

The Two-Humps camel has in winter a coat of long, shaggy hair on his back to guard him from the cold; and in summer the shaggy hair comes off his back, just as if he were to cast off his thick coat. But the One-Hump camel has only short hair, as the country is too hot all the time to need a thick coat.

Now I must tell you how camels are used. First, they carry goods for trade. In those countries there are hardly any railroads, so the merchants carry their packages on camels. Of course they could not put a package right on a camel's hump, as it would fall off; so they always join two packages together with a band or belt, and sling the band across the camel's back, so that there is a package on each side of the camel.

When a One-Hump camel is used, the band or belt has two parts, like a loop; and the loop rests over the hump, so that the band cannot slip backward or forward. When a Two-Humps camel is used, the band of course rests in the gap between the two humps, so that it cannot slip at all; and then the two packages can be made very big. That is why people like the Two-Humps camel better for carrying goods, and like the One-Hump camel better for riding. But in some places the One-Hump camel is used both for riding and for carrying goods.

In this way merchants carry their goods for many hundred miles across desert and country. Then sometimes they come to the sea and send the goods in ships to different countries. That is how you get many of the figs, dates, and grapes you eat; so the next time you eat them, think of the patient camel that brought them for you across the desert. That is why the camel is called the Ship of the Desert.

The beautiful carpets and rugs and shawls which you see in rich homes have also been brought by the patient camels; and some of the lovely vases and ornaments that rich people have were also carried by camels. And not only across the desert, but even over ordinary land camels carry these goods. The camel is such a large animal that he can carry packages as heavy as four men.

Of course when he carries such a heavy load, he cannot go any faster than a man's walk; but the camel can keep on walking all day, with just a short rest once in a while. Those used for riding cannot run as fast as a horse, but they can keep on running at a steady trot much longer than a horse, and then after a short rest can start running again. So by the end of the day a camel can run twice as far as a horse, and sometimes still farther.

The Camel's Wonderful Gifts

Now I am going to tell you of the most wonderful things a camel can do.

First, I must tell you that no other animal could cross a desert at all. To begin with, if such an animal as a horse tried to walk on the sand, his hoofs would sink into the sand up to the ankles, and it would be hard work for him to go even a mile. But a camel's foot is different. It has a soft pad of muscles under it, just like a cushion; and when the camel walks or runs on the sand, the pad spreads out under his foot, and that gives him a firm hold on the sand in walking or running. So remember that the camel has padded feet.

I must tell you here that the feet of all animals are formed in the way they can best use, in the country in which they live. Those animals that have to walk on hard ground have hoofs, and those that have to walk on soft ground have padded feet. The elephant is the only animal that has to walk on hard ground, at least very often, and yet has padded feet. Can you tell why? Because of his huge weight! He is so heavy that if the bones under his feet were not covered with a thick pad, he would jar the bones every time he put his foot down, even if the ground were not very hard.

In the same way the camel's padded foot is very useful to him even when he is not in the desert, but on hard ground; for he too is rather heavy, though of course not so heavy as an elephant.

There are other reasons why no other animal could cross a desert as easily as a camel. In the desert there are sometimes fierce storms; and as it is all sand there, the strong wind blows the sand about in every direction. As there is no place there where one could get away from the sand, any other animal would soon have a lot of sand blown into his nostrils; then he would be choked. But a camel's nostrils are made differently, so that whenever he likes he can close his nostrils, as easily as you can close your mouths, and that keeps away the sand. The camel is clever enough to lie down on the ground when a storm is blowing, and to lay his neck and chin along the ground; then his nose is quite close to the ground, where the storm is not quite so fierce as in the air.

Of course, when he wants to breathe, he opens his nostrils a tiny bit to take in a little air; then he closes the nostrils again, and holds his breath for a little while. He has to keep on doing that as long as the storm lasts.

But what does his master do, who has been riding on his back? He cannot close his nostrils; so the only thing he can do is to get off the camel and huddle against the camel's body on the side far from the wind; then he brings his face quite close to the ground and holds his nose with his hand. When he wants to breathe, he opens his fingers just enough to make a slit and let the air in, but not enough to let the sand in.

There is another reason why no other animal could cross a desert: his eyes would be blinded by the fierce glare of the sun. But a camel has very thick hair on his eyebrows, which hang over the eyes, and keep off the fierce rays of the sun. His eyelashes also are very thick, and help to keep off the sun in the same way.

But there is a still more wonderful reason why no other animal, except a camel, could cross a desert. In a desert water is very scarce, and a traveler crossing a desert on a camel may not find any water for a whole week. Of course, he carries on his saddle half a dozen bottles of water to drink; but after drinking some of the water each day, he has not much to spare for the poor camel. Then what is the poor camel to do?

Of course, you may say that his master should carry more water for the camel to drink. But the load of goods which the camel has to carry is already so heavy that there is not much room for any more water. Then what can the poor camel do?

Why, he carries his own drinking water, not in the load on his back, but inside his stomach! Is not that a wonderful thing? His stomach is made differently from that of any other animal. The stomach of any other animal, Or even a man's stomach, is so made that the water drunk at any time is all used up in the next few hours; that is why any other animal, or even a man, has to have another drink after those few hours.

But a camel's stomach is so made that it has one big place for food and drink like the stomach of any other animal, but it also has many smaller places arranged all around the stomach; these smaller places are just like bottles, and are called cells.

So when a camel takes a good long drink, the big place in the middle of the stomach takes in the water first; then as he drinks more and more, the bottles or cells all around begin to get filled also. And the wonderful thing is that as soon as each cell is full, its mouth closes up by itself! In that way, if the camel drinks long enough, all the cells get full, one by one, and then have their mouths closed up.

When a camel is about to start on a long journey through the desert, he takes a very long drink, till he feels that he cannot drink any more; then he knows that all the bottles or cells inside are quite full, as well as the big place in the middle of his stomach. Now he is ready to cross the desert.

After many hours all the water in the big place in the middle of the stomach gets used up. Then what happens? Why, one of the bottles inside opens its mouth by itself, and pours the water into the stomach! And after many hours more, when that water has also been used up, the second bottle opens its mouth and pours the water into the stomach. In this way all the bottles or cells inside the camel one by one pour their water into the stomach from day to day, whenever the camel feels thirsty. Is not that most wonderful?

And there is yet another very wonderful thing about the camel. His hump! It is just as wonderful whether it is one hump or two humps. I shall tell you.

The camel's hump is his store of food! Yes, just as he carries his own drinking water inside his stomach, so he also carries his own store of food in his hump.

This is how he does it:

When the camel is quite well and strong, if he eats any food which is a little more than he actually needs for his hunger, that food after a while goes to his hump and helps to make it bigger. In this way the hump becomes a store of all the extra food that he has eaten. Then, on going on a long journey through the desert, if the camel has nothing to eat and begins to feel hungry and weak, a little of the hump is used up to give him strength, just as if he were to eat a meal. In this way he can go for many days without food, but of course his hump will get smaller and smaller.

But his master does not actually take him through the desert without giving him any food or drink; in fact he always gives the camel some of the figs and dates which he takes with him for his own meals, and also some of the drinking water which he carries on his saddle. But if it did happen that his master had no food or drink to spare, the camel could still live for several days, using his hump for food, and the water in the cells of his stomach for drink.

The camel can do yet another wonderful thing. He can tell a long way off when he is coming to a place where there is water. In the desert, after going over sand and sand for many days, a traveler sometimes finds a beautiful place called an oasis. It is just like a lovely little garden right in the middle of the desert, with a spring of water, and several fig trees, date trees, and other palm trees growing all around the pool.

When a traveler is crossing the desert and sees nothing but sand for several days, it sometimes happens that his camel suddenly stops, stands quite still for a minute, raises his head, and sniffs the air. Then he turns a little to the right or to the left, and begins to run straight that way. His master may look ahead very hard, but he will see nothing but sand and sand, as before.

But the camel, by just sniffing the air, has found out that there is an oasis within reach, though it is still too far away for him to see it. Then he runs on most gladly, and comes to the oasis in an hour, so that he and his master can rest there for some time, and drink from the pool, and eat the figs and dates growing on the trees.

Of course, the camel can also eat the leaves of the trees; in fact, when he is not in the desert, but just in the ordinary country, he usually eats from the shrubs and bushes, and gets figs and dates only as a dainty, just as you sometimes have ice cream. The camel with two humps will gladly eat many more things than the camel with one hump. In fact, when he is hungry, he will eat not only any kind of vegetable, but also meat. He has even been known to chew up and eat bones, blankets, and leather! And he is perhaps the only animal that will drink salt water; for the country in which the Two-Humps camel lives has several lakes, the water of which is bitter and salty.

So you see how useful an animal the camel is, whether he has one hump or two humps. He is so useful that people have been saying for a long time that camels should be brought into America, where there are several deserts in the western states. In fact, a strange thing has already happened. The United States Government did bring a lot of camels for use in the western states several years ago, about the time when your grandfather was a boy.

But the people who can best manage such large animals as elephants and camels are the people who are born in the same countries as those animals and who understand their habits. And unluckily, when the camels were brought into America, nobody thought of bringing men also from those countries to manage the camels. So nobody seemed to know how to use these animals, and after a time they were turned loose in Arizona. The camels went into the deserts and forests there, and became quite wild, and to-day there are some of them in Arizona.

Now, do you not think it would be a good idea to get a few men from those countries and learn from them how to manage camels? Then the camels of Arizona also could be used in crossing the deserts there, where there are no railroads.

Besides being the only animal that can cross the desert, the camel is different from any other four-legged animal even in the way he walks.

You have seen how a horse walks? When his left foreleg is lifted off the ground, his right hind leg is also lifted off the ground; then in the next step, when his right foreleg is lifted off the ground, his left hind leg is also lifted off the ground. That means that the two legs which move at the same time are those placed at the opposite corners of his body. But when a camel walks, he lifts the two legs on the same side of his body at the same time. And when he takes the next step, he lifts the two legs on the other side of his body.

Now, my dear, I have told you many things about the camel which are different from anything in any other animal. So, before I close this chapter, I want you to remember these things about the camel:

1. His foot is padded in such a way that he can walk or run on sand.

2. He can close his nostrils to keep out the sand in a storm.

3. His thick and bushy eyebrows and thick eyelashes keep the glare of the sun from his eyes.

4. His stomach has many cells like bottles, in which he can store up water.

5. He can store up food in his hump.

6. He walks by moving both legs on the same side of his body at the same time.

In another chapter I shall tell you about an animal that can also do one of these things: he can store up food in his body, though in a different way. That animal is the bear. He sleeps through the whole winter, and has to have a store of food somewhere in his body to last all that time.