A GLIMPSE OF A STRANGE LIFE.

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 12, 23 June 1894, Page 3

A GLIMPSE OF A STRANGE LIFE.

NO. 1. Dear Linda,— We are apt to think sometimes that the more remote parts of the colony are decidedly “out, of the world,” but a few months ago I had a glimpse of a life still more secluded, and so strange that I am going to tell .you about it. I met with a family who had been for some time residing in India —in the desert, up in the interior. So far inland were they that some of their children were grown up before the parents bad ever beheld the wonders of the ocean. I was curious to know what could, take English people into such a neighbourhood, and upon enquiry Miss B. informed me that her father was manager of the Government salt works, the salt being obtained by evaporation from the salt-lakes close by. There are no railways, and horses cannot get a footing in the sand, so the only way of travelling is to ride upon a camel —at least it is called a camel there, but as it has only one hump I should think it is more like a dromedary. Getting started is rather a business. The animal crouches down to receive its rider, and then it rises—first upon its hindlegs and then upon its forelegs, which double jerk generally has the effect of depositing a novice on the sand, somewhat to his surprise. Some of the camels are very vicious. On the chest is a hard surface upon which the camel rests when on the ground. When he is angry with his keeper he gets him between the forelegs, throws him to the.ground, and grinds him to death with this callosity. The mother of the family in question took a journey of sixty miles to conduct some of her children to school. They rode upon camels, two or three persons on each, sending on tents and provisions beforehand. Arrived at the first camping place they found the tents in readiness, but unfortunately the commissariat depart ment had collapsed by the way. However, they procured from the natives some very smoky milk, upon which they managed to subsist. Some days |after, upon the return journey, the missing camel appeared ; he had bitten his driver so severely that there was nothing for it but to turn back and leave the poor fellow at the hospital. Occasionally an animal becomes unmanageable and sets upon its keeper with such violence that several other men have to rush to the rescue, entangle its legs in a rope and throw it to the ground. The camel cannot walk upon a slimy, wet surface, its legs slide from under it, spreading out in all directions until (as my informant remarked in a matter-of-fact to’ie) “it splits up and is no more good.” This, I found meant that its skin splits in consequence of its unnatural position, and the poor creature dies. Shamrock.