This was bad enough, but worse was to come. For it happened that in this cave lived a He-jackal and a She-jackal.
When the Jackals saw this extraordinary neck winding along their cave, they were frightened, and hid away.
"What is this snake?" said the He-jackal to his wife.
"Oh dear, I don't know!" whimpered his wife, "I never saw a snake like this."
They kept quiet, the head passed out of view into the inner part of the cave; then after a while, the creature lay still.
"Let us smell him!" said the He-jackal.
They smelt him. "He smells nice," said the She-jackal; "not a bit like a snake."
"Let us taste him!" said the He-jackal.
They took a bite; the Camel stirred restlessly. They took another bite, and liked that better still. They went on biting. The Camel curled round his head to see what was going on; but before the Camel's head could get back more than a mile or two, he grew so weak from loss of blood, that he could move no more, and he died.
So died the idle Camel, because the god granted him his foolish wish. Perhaps our wishes are often just as foolish, if we only knew it; and perhaps if they were fulfilled they would be the bane of us, as happened to the lazy and religious Camel.