Page 341 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

302 TRAVELS IN OMaN. [CH.

The camel is subjected to but few diseases.
In damp places its feet crack and ulcerate:

the rot is especially fatal; hundreds, when
the Syrian Hajj remains encamped at Aleppo

and other large cities, being sometimes swept
off by it. Petroleum is the most usual re­
medy. A glandular swelling in the neck,

which usually kills him in three or four days,
and colics, are also said to prevail in the

spring and autumn of the year. The actual
cautery is put in requisition for all these.
When the camel on a journey refuses to

rise, the Arabs universally abandon him to
his fate. It is seldom they get on their legs

again, though instances have occurred where
they have done so, and completed a journey

of several days. I have often passed them
when thus abandoned, and remarked their

mournful looks as with mute eloquence they
gazed after the receding caravan. When the
Arab is upbraided with inhumanity, because

he does not at once put a period to the ani­
mal’s sufferings, he answers that the law for­

bids taking away life, save for food ; and even
then, pardon is to be implored for the neces­

sity which compels the act. When death