THE CAMEL
The Camell is of nature flexible,
For when a burden on his backe is bound,
To ease the labourer, he is knowne most gentle,
For why he kneeleth downe upon the ground:
Suffering the man to put it off or on,
As it seemes best in his discretion.
Robert Chester, Love's Martyr
I strained my ears.... A pause, while the camel-riders drew up: and then the soggy
tapping of canes on the thick of the beasts' necks to make them kneel.
They knelt without a noise: and I timed it in my memory: first the hesitation, as the
camels, looking down, felt the soil with one foot for a soft place; then the muffled thud and the
sudden loosening of breath as they dropped on their fore-legs, since this party had come far
and were tired; then the shuffle as the hind legs were folded in, and the rocking as they tossed
from side to side thrusting outward with their knees to bury them in the cooler subsoil below
the burning flints, while the riders, with a quick soft patter of bare feet, like birds over the
ground, were led off tacitly either to the coffee hearth or to Abdulla's tent, according to their
business. The camels would rest there, uneasily switching their tails across the shingle till their
masters were free and looked to their stabling.
T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Windom
A CAMEL AT FIRST SIGHT
Upon the first sight of a camel, all people ran away from't, in amazement at so monstrous a
bulk. Upon the second sight, finding that it did them no hurt, they took heart upon't, went
up to't, and view'd it. But when they came, upon further experience, to take notice, how
stupid a beast it was, they ty'd it up, bridled it, loaded it with packs and burdens; set boys
upon the back on't, and treated it with the last degree of contempt.
The Camel is an animal sufficiently well known; in Chaldean he is called Civoi; in Greek
Iphim. If his blood be poured into the skin of a tarantula, or stellion, while the stars are shin-
ing, one will think to see a giant, whose head will seem to touch the heavens. Hermes asserts
that he has performed this experiment personally. Should anyone by chance eat of the camel,
he will shortly afterward become mad: & if one lights a lamp which has previously been
rubbed with camel-blood, it will appear that all present have the heads of camels, provided,
however, that there are no other lighted lamps in the room.
THE MORAL
Novelty surprises us, and we have naturally a horror for uncouth misshapen monsters; but 'tis
our ignorance that staggers us, for upon custom and experience, all these buggs grow familiar,
and easy to us.
Acsop, according to Sir Roger L'Estrange
Secreta of Albertus Magnus
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