Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

A traveler from Pekin to Siberia, across the great desert of Gobi, tells us that whenever a camel’s feet have become tender and sore from long marches, the poor creature lies down. His driver knows at once that his feet hurt him, and looks to find out if the thick skin of the feet is blistered. Whenever a blister is found, two or three strong men, usually Mongols, keep watch of the camel until it is not noticing them. At just the right moment they make a rush all together upon the camel, throw it over upon its side, and make it fast. Then, with a needle made for that use, they sew a square piece of leather, large enough to cover the hurt place, over the camel’s foot, the skin of which is quite thick enough to sew through without hurting the animal. With his new shoes on, the animal is quite ready to get up and march on. The pieces of leather are very carefully prepared for this use. It sometimes happens that a camel lies down in the midst of his long march across the wide desert, and dies. The natives take the thickest part of his skin to make shoes of. These bits of skin they take out day after day, when on the march, and pull, until they become soft and yielding that a camel with blistered feet seems grateful to have shoes made of it, although he would resist the shoeing to the last, were he not held so that he could not move.