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Entered according to Act of Congress, in June, 1869, by J. W. Burke & Cos., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the So. District of Georgia
Vol. Ill—No. 47.
THE CAMEL.
AMELS are of two kinds.
The Arabs’ camel has
one hump, an( j ; s ca ]led
by a very long name. It is call
ed a dromedary, and is more
used to ride upon than to carry
burdens. The other camel has
two humps. He cannot go so
fast, but he can carry a greater
weight upon his back.
God has made the camel so that
he can live in the desert. It
would scorch your feet to walk
upon the hot sand. But the
camel’s feet are made on pur
pose, and it does not hurt them
at all.
Sometimes the wind rises in
the desert and whirls the sand
round and round in the air. The
men lie down on their faces, and
try to keep the sand out of their
mouths, and out of their noses.
The camel is better off than they
are. He can shut his nose quite
tight —so tight that not a bit of
sand can get in.
Water is very scarce in the des
ert. The wells of water are so
far apart that men sometimes die
of thirst as they go from one well
to another. But the camel can
go many days without drinking,
and I can tell you how it is. He
has a pouch in his stomach, and
he fills it with clear water. This
keeps the camel from being thirsty.
And he can smell water a very long
way off. When the men have drank up
all the water they carry with them, they
think they must die of thirst. No well
is to be seen, and they don’t know where
to find one. But the camel has a
stronger smell than they have. He
pricks up his ears and snuffs with his
nose in the air, as Jf he smelt something.
He jogs on a little faster, and a little
faster, and a little faster still. The
men do not try to stop him. They
think that he smells water; and so it
is. There is a well miles away in the
MACON, GEORGIA, MAY 21, 1870.
distance, and the camel is, making his
way to it. Then the poor thirsty people
can drink as much as they like.
Perhaps it is night when they get to
the well, and the camel is turned loose
to get his own supper. He will eat the
nice bit of grass that grows near the
water. But he is not dainty, and if
there is no grass, he makes his supper
on the plants that live in the sand, and
that are all over prickles and spikes.
The men would not think such plants
were of any use, if they did not see the
camel eat them.
The hair of the camel falls off once a
year, and the Arab uses it to make warm
clothing of. You have read in the Bi
ble that John the Baptist had a garment
of camel’s hair, when he was in the
desert.
Little Sewer.
An Eastern Juggler.
Americans are often full of
delight and wonder at the feats
p" of magicians, or jugglers, who
seem to turn a handkerchief into a
dove, or to break a watch to pieces and
Whole No. 151.
then return it whole to its owner.
But such feats are very simple,
compared with those of jugglers
in India. Rev. Norman MacLeod,
in his travels there, gives the fo 1 -
lowing account of what he wit
nessed :
While the] tom-tom* was beat
ing and the pipe playing, the jug
gler, singing all the time in low
accents, smoothed a place in the
gravel, three or Hour yards be
fore us. Having thus prepared
a bed for the plant to grow in, he
took a basket and placed it over
the place, covering it with a thin
blanket.
The man himself did not wear
a thread of clothing, except a
strip around the lions.
The time seemed to have come
for the detective’s eye ! So, just
as he was becoming more ear
nest in his song, and while the
tom-tom beat and the pipe shrill
ed more loudly, I stepped for
ward with becoming dignity, and
begged him to bring the basket
and its cover[to me. The juggler
cheerfully complied.
I then examined the cloth cov
ering. It was thin, almost trans
parent, and certainly there was
nothing concealed in it. I then
fixed my eyes on his strip of clo
thing with such intentness that it
was not possible it could have
been touched without discovery ;
and bade him go on. I felt per-
fectly sure that the trick would not suc
ceed.
Sitting down, he stretched hi3 naked
arms under the basket, singing and smi
ling as he did so; he then lifted the
basket off the ground, and behold! a
green plant about a foot high ! Satis
fied with our applause, he went on with
his incantations.
After having sat a little, to give his
plant time to grow, he again lifted the
basket, and the plant was now two feet
high. He asked us to wait a little long
er, that we might taste the fruit! But
on being assured by those who had seen