Nevertheless the animal gives indications of intelligence when badly treated, if we may judge from its revengeful nature, well illustrated in the following account:—
“A valuable Camel, working in an oil-mill, was severely beaten by its driver. Perceiving that the Camel had treasured up the injury, and was only waiting a favourable opportunity for revenge, he kept a strict watch upon the animal. Time passed away; the Camel, perceiving that it was watched, was quiet and obedient, and the driver began to think that the beating was forgotten, when one night, after the lapse of several months, the man was sleeping on a raised platform in the mill, whilst, as is customary, the Camel was stabled in a corner. Happening to awake, the driver observed by the bright moonlight that, when all was quiet, the animal looked cautiously around, rose softly, and stealing towards a spot where a bundle of clothes and a bernous, thrown carelessly on the ground, resembled a sleeping figure, cast itself with violence upon them, rolling with all its weight, and tearing them most viciously with its teeth. Satisfied that its revenge was complete, the Camel was returning to its corner, when the driver sat up and spoke. At the sound of his voice, and perceiving the mistake it had made, the animal was so mortified at the failure and discovery of its scheme, that it dashed its head against the wall and died on the spot.”
THE BACTRIAN CAMEL.[46]
The Two-humped Camel is found in the regions to the east and north of the home of its One-humped ally, extending as far as Pekin and Lake Baikal. It it a heavier, shorter-legged, and thicker-coated species, at the same time that the feet are more adapted to a less yielding soil from their greater callousness. The hair is specially abundant upon the top of the head, the arm, wrist, throat, and humps. There is no variety of this species corresponding to the Dromedary One-humped Camel.
HUANACO ATTACKED BY A PUMA.
THE LLAMAS.[47]
The Llamas, when the term is employed in its wider sense, include the American representatives of the Camel tribe, none of which have any trace of the dorsal hump or humps found in their Old World allies. They are mountain animals, found in the Cordilleras of Peru and Chili, in this respect also differing from the desert-loving Camels, with which they agree in all important structural peculiarities, including the stomach, lips, nostrils, and coat. The feet are somewhat modified in accordance with the rocky nature of the mountain regions which they inhabit, the sole-pads being less considerable, and almost completely divided into two hard cushions, with a long and hooked nail in the front of each.
ALPACA.