Let’s go trot, trot, trot
Even when it is so hot
In the work there’s a lot
So use all the strength you got.
Camels For Rebekah
“And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed; for all the goods of his master were in his hand: and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor.
And he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to draw water.
And he said, O LORD God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and show kindness unto my master Abraham.
Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water:
And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast showed kindness unto my master.
And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder.
And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her: and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up.
And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher.
And she said, Drink, my lord: and she hasted, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink.
And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking.
And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.
And he said, Come in, thou blessed of the LORD; wherefore standest thou without? for I have prepared the house, and room for the camels.
And the man came into the house: and he ungirded his camels, and gave straw and provender for the camels, and water to wash his feet, and the men's feet that were with him.
And there was set meat before him to eat: but he said, I will not eat, until I have told mine errand. And he said, Speak on.
And he said, I am Abraham's servant.
And the LORD hath blessed my master greatly; and he is become great: and he hath given him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and maidservants, and camels, and asses.
And Sarah my master's wife bare a son to my master when she was old: and unto him hath he given all that he hath.
And my master made me swear, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife to my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell:
But thou shalt go unto my father's house, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son.
And I came this day unto the well, and said, O LORD God of my master Abraham, if now thou do prosper my way which I go:
Behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass, that when the virgin cometh forth to draw water, and I say to her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water of thy pitcher to drink;
And she say to me, Both drink thou, and I will also draw for thy camels: let the same be the woman whom the LORD hath appointed out for my master's son.
And before I had done speaking in mine heart, behold, Rebekah came forth with her pitcher on her shoulder; and she went down unto the well, and drew water: and I said unto her, Let me drink, I pray thee.
And she made haste, and let down her pitcher from her shoulder, and said, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: so I drank, and she made the camels drink also.
And I asked her, and said, Whose daughter art thou? And she said, The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bare unto him:
And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.
And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man: and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way.
And Isaac came from the way of the well Lahairoi; for he dwelt in the south country.
And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming.
And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel.
For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a veil, and covered herself.”
Genesis 24
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"The Home of the Camel"
“The recent spectacle of a train of patient camels accompanying a wild beast show through the London streets, ankle-deep in snow, could not fail to awaken a feeling of pity in the beholder, as he thought of the hot desert sands to which the camel is accustomed, and for which it seems so well fitted. But according to a writer in Chambers's Journal the Bactrian Camel seems to be so much at home on the stony steppes of the Gobi Desert as his cousins in the Sahara, and bears the rigours of a Siberian winter without apparent discomfort or injury.
From the dawn of history, Arabia has been the especial home of the camel. Its habitat, if we include the various breeds of the two species, may fairly be said to extend from Central Africa to Lake Baikal, on the frontier of Siberia, and from Algeria to China.
But far beyond even this vast area the camel is found in certain regions, and has apparently "come to stay" in some of them. Camels arrived in Turkey with the Osmanli conquerors; they were bred in Tuscany as early as 1632, and Leigh Hunt makes mention of those at Pisa-which had by this time degenerated-in his day.
Camels were introduced into Spain about 1830 from the Canary Islands, and though they did good work as beasts of burden for years, were ultimately allowed to run wild in the marshy delta of the Guadalquivir, where at least one herd of twenty, perfectly wild, stilt exists. Camels have been tried in Cuba, Texas, Bolivia, and Nevada, with no considerable success; but in Australia, an experiment, first merle in 1860, has proved Immensely successful, insomuch that in the "coming colony" of Western Australia, these beasts of burden promise to bear an important share in the development now going "with leaps and bounds." March 28, 1901 EJW, PTUK 201
Waggoner
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“And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold; beside ornaments, and collars, and purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian, and beside the chains that were about their camels' necks."
Judges 8:26
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“And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.”
1 Kings 10:2
“And they took away their cattle; of their camels fifty thousand, and of sheep two hundred and fifty thousand, and of asses two thousand, and of men an hundred thousand.”
1 Chronicles 5:21
About 3,000 camels are employed in the traffic to the mines in West Australia.”
January 30, 1896 EJW, PTUK 78
“Contrary to general belief, the Sahara is not a barren and worthless waste. Some time ago there were nine million sheep in the Algerian Sahara alone, Insides two million goats, and two hundred and sixty thousand camels. On the cases there are one million five hundred thousand date palms.”
June 4, 1896 EJW, PTUK 366
These camels can run 40 miles an hour and for longer stretches 25 miles an hour. Most camels are domesticated and are hard working animals that serve their master. But there are a few places where you can find wild camels. They mostly live in Africa and Asia and some in Australia, but of course they are a favorite for zoos around the world.
A camel can be 7 feet tall and weigh 2,200 pounds and live to be 40-50 years old. He has a thick coat for insulation purpose to keep him from heating up too much out in the desert. He has big wide feet so he does not sink into the soft sandy desert ground.
In the summer time their coat is lighter and so it reflects the heat better. In the mouth they have a lining that is thick and leathery to enable them to eat rough, thorny plants that grow in the desert without injury. They retain much of the moisture that is in the plant so they can go long periods with little water. The nomads of the desert use camel milk as one of their main foods. An average camel can drink 53 US gallons of water in three minutes. The real camels are the Bactrian Camel with two humps of fat and the dromedary with one hump of fat on its back.
Camel
THE SHIP OF THE DESERT.
SHIPS that make long voyages have rooms in which to lay up food, and tanks to contain water for use on the voyage.
So has the desert ship, a picture of which you see.
This ship crosses land instead of water. A country of plains, of burning sand, and of mountains just as parched, with only rocks instead of trees, without water and with- out grass, over which you might look as far as you could see, and not meet with a single living being, or anything to show that one had been there, save, perhaps, some scattered bones, that tell a story of hunger, and thirst, and death. Over such a land as this, the ship of the desert takes its way. The Arabs gave the camel this name, for without him they could not safely cross the deserts nor escape' their enemies when attacked.
The appearance of the camel does not at first indicate his many excellent qualities.
We are amazed at his great height and curious proportions. He has a long, thin, crooked neck, surmounted by a heavily proportioned head, which, when elevated, is at least nine feet above the ground; a stout body, from seven to eight feet in length, having on the back one or two humps which convey the idea of distortion.
But these strange-looking humps are, when he has been well fed, filled with fat, and when he has been traveling for many days with but little to eat, he draws enough food from this storehouse to keep him alive for some time; so that, at times, on long and painful journeys, the fat is used up and the skin falls over like bags on each side, and there is hardly any hump left.
When properly understood, therefore, these apparent blemishes become real beau- ties, pointing out to us, as they certainly do, God's goodness to the works of his hands.
The animal has also, it is said, the power of laying in store, at one time, enough water for thirty days. For this purpose there is a large cistern within him, from which, when he wishes, he draws what he needs and pours it into his stomach.
His natural food consists not so much of the herbage of the oasis as the thorny plant of the desert. His teeth are especially formed for such a diet, whilst his cleft upper lip enables him to nip off the tender shoots of shrubs, and to browse with comfort on the leaves of the date and tamarisk.
If the camel's feet had hoofs like those of a horse, they would soon become parched and cracked while going over the desert; but the feet are very large, and the under part is covered with a soft, spongy, elastic texture, and therefore spreads out at each step according to the pressure made upon it, thus giving the animal a firm footing on the sand, while the callous skin with which its surface is covered prevents any suffering or the slightest inconvenience being caused by the heat. The rough, callous surfaces on the chest of the animal and on the joints of his fore and hind limbs are the points on which the animal rests when it kneels for its load, or lies down for repose.
They are, in fact, natural cushions, not produced by its habit of kneeling, as some have supposed, for the young camel is born with them, and, therefore, they are really the natural badges of his servitude to man.
The camel is trained to hard work when very young. His master throws a stout cloth over his back when he is kneeling, and on each corner puts a heavy stone.
When the young camel can lift this easily, heavier weights are put on; and when he is used to these, the trainer places a large saddle upon his back, loads it, and takes him out into the desert.
A QUEER ANIMAL.
WHEN I was a little girl, grandpapa gave me a book all about animals.
How I liked that book!
Mamma used to read it to me, just as your mamma reads to you.
There was a picture of one very queer animal in the book. He was not pretty one bit. He had a big hump on his back ; he had long legs and a long neck, and such a homely head! But I used to like to hear about him.
He was a camel. Did you ever see a camel?
In the countries where camels live, the people ride on them. They cross the great deserts of sand on the backs of camels. Do you think you would like to ride on one? The little children ride in a kind of basket.
The people often travel many days in the great deserts without finding water. They always carry water with them in great leather bottles. But the camels themselves can go many days without water. They do not get thirsty.
I wish you could see a baby camel. A baby
camel is such a queer little thing. His body is small: and his legs are very, very long. He has big black eyes. His hair is fluffy, and yellow.
It is- a funny sight to see the camels eat. The driver spreads a cloth on the ground, and pours the grain upon it. Then all the camels sit down on the ground around the cloth and eat. It is just like a picnic.
They behave very well at their table. They
bend their long necks down to .the grain. They look as if they were bowing politely to each other.
Sometimes a camel feels cross and will not eat at all. Do you ever feel so cross that you cannot eat?
Our Little Ones.