awy,
who sits half-asleep smoking his pipe, you would think them the tamest
and most innocent creatures in the world, but when they fall into a
panic, they are beyond all control. A few years ago a drove of camels
was passing through the city of Damascus. The Arabs drive camels like
sheep, hundreds and sometimes thousands in a flock, and they look
awkward enough. When this drove entered the city, something frightened
them, and they began to run. Just imagine a camel running! What a sight
it must have been! Hundreds of them went through the narrow streets,
knocking over men and women and donkeys, upsetting the shopkeepers, and
spilling out their wares on the ground, and many persons were badly
bruised. At length a carpenter saw them coming and put a timber across
the street, which dammed up the infuriated tide of camels, and they
dashed against one another until they were all wedged together, and thus
their owners secured them.

In August, 1862, a famous Bedawin Chief, named Mohammed ed Dukhy, in
Houran, east of the Jordan, rebelled against the Turkish Government. The
Druzes joined him, and the Turks sent a small army against them.
Mohammed had in his camp several thousand of the finest Arabian camels,
and they were placed in a row behind his thousands of Arab and Druze
horsemen. Behind the camels were the women, children, sheep, cattle and
goats. When the Turkish army first opened fire with musketry, the camels
made little disturbance, as they were used to hearing small arms, but
when the Turkish Colonel gave orders to fire with cannon, "the ships of
the desert" began to tremble. The artillery thundered, and the poor
camels could stand it no longer. They were driven quite crazy with
fright, and fled over the country in every direction in more than a Bull
Run panic. Some went down towards the Sea of Galilee, others towards the
swamps of Merom, and hundreds towards Banias, the ancient Caesarea
Philippi, and onwards to the West as far as Deir Mimas. Nothing could
stop them. Their tongues were projecting, their eyes glaring, and on
they went. The fellaheen along the roads caught them as they could, and
sold them to their neighbors. Fine camels worth eighty dollars, were
sold for four or five dollars a head, and in some villages the fat
animals were butchered and sold for beef. Some of them came to Deir
Mimas, where two of the missionaries lived. The Protestants said to the
missionaries, "here are noble camels selling for fi