Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology

maras well as man, andthereforereadv. « V\ \ [j l+\ Kamari

or Kamali. Mr. P. le Page Renoufinformsme such a phonetic value
of -C3>- is one which,he thinks, requiresconfirmation fromother

instances. M. Chabas, referringto —■<E>-* ma and JkN?_£ra-<E>-cr~3

mar, thinks -cs>- has this value; with this we may compare

-<S5>- mer "an eye." Butwhatevermaybe the real name

of the beast of burden, I think thereis little, if any doubt,that

the camel is the animal denoted by both the Egyptian words

—^^i^kT^^klT^- What

is said in the above textssuitsthe camel betterthanany other beast

of burden. Kushseemsto have beenthe land wherethe camel was

bestknown,and to this day it is very abundantin Nubia. We

have seenfrom Strabo thatthe camel merchants at one period

carried their water with them across the desert between Myos

Hormusand Coptos on the Nile, andI think it highly probablethat

the burdens denotedby the word -^Vv-a*>(1 ^> maqaldu

or maqarau werevessels for carrying water, as the determinative

wouldleadone to infer.

Thetext about dancingcamels is not so easy to understand,

Mr. P. le Page Renoufsays" it seems to explainthe verb^^ (1(1 ^p\

which(in anothertext published by Brugschin his Recueil, II, pi. 62)

comesin a series of words expressiveof gymnastic featsperformed

by men." Perhapsthe gymnastic featsweregrotesqueimitationsof

camel-conductand attitude.

Thefull form of the Egyptian wordKamaaar(r—l,cf. Heb. 7!22)

occurswherewe should expectto find it, viz., in the travels of the

Egyptianofficerin Syria. I have noticedseveralSemiticwordsin

the record, as given by Mr. Budge in his useful recentlypublished

" Egyptian Reading Book." On some of the animal and plant

names I may have something to say on a future occasion. To

conclude,I think the evidence adducedhereis enough to satisfy us

that the camel wasknown to and used by the Egyptians from,

comparativelyspeaking,earlytimes.

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