probably adapted to considerable variations of
environment. Within the time of which we know something by history,
these forms have been limited to the arid districts of southwestern
Asia and northern Africa. It is not certain that we know the originally
wild form of either of the two species, the double-humped or
single-humped camels. Wild members of each exist, but they may be the
descendants of the domesticated forms. It seems probable that long
before the building of the Pyramids the people of the deserts had
learned how to profit from the very peculiar qualities of this
strangely provided beast, which in several distinct ways is singularly
fitted to serve the needs of man in arid lands. The large and
well-padded foot of this creature is well adapted for treading a
surface unsoftened by vegetation. Its peculiar stomach enables it to
store water in such a manner that it can go for days without drink. In
the humps upon its back, as in natural pack-saddles, it may harvest a
share of the nutriment which it obtains from occasional good
pasturages, the store being laid away in the form of fat which may
return to the blood when the creature would otherwise starve. So
important have these peculiarities been found by men who have
domesticated the camel, that on them have rested many of the most
interesting features of race development in the history of our kind. In
the territories along the eastern and southern shores of the
Mediterranean, and in a large part of southern and central Asia, the
camel has done service to man which elsewhere has been performed by
sheep, cattle, and horses. In those parts of the world the share which
these domesticated animals have had in the development of man has been
relatively small. The camel has given the strength for burdens, hair
for clothing, and often flesh to the needy men of the desert.

[Illustration: The Halt in the Desert at Night--The Story Teller]

Although long a captive, and for ages, perhaps, the most serviceable of
all the creatures which man has won from the wilds, the camel is still
only partly domesticated, having never acquired even the small measure
of affection for his master which we find in the other herbivorous
animals which have been won to the service of man. The obedience which
he renders is but a dull submission to inevitable toil. The
intelligence which he shows is very limited, and, so far as I can judge
from the accounts of those who have observed him, there