[ilds] dying camel

[Godshalk, William (godshawl)]

W. L. Godshalk *
Department of English    *           *
University of Cincinnati*   * Stellar Disorder  *
OH 45221-0069 *  *
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From: ilds-bounces at lists.uvic.ca [ilds-bounces at lists.uvic.ca] On Behalf Of Charles Sligh [charles-sligh at utc.edu]
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2011 11:52 AM
To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca
Subject: [ilds] dying camel

Cf. Justine, Part I
A camel has collapsed from exhaustion in the street outside the house.  It is too heavy to transport to the slaughterhouse, so a couple of men came with axes and cut it up there and then in the open street, alive.  They hack through the white flesh - the poor creature looking ever more pained, more aristocratic, more puzzled as its legs are hacked off.  Finally there is the head still alive, the eyes open, looking around.  Not a scream of protest, not a struggle.  The animal submits like a palm-tree.  But for days afterwards the mud street is soaked in its blood and our bare feet are printed by the moisture. (Faber 1962: 56)
Also, cf. Pursewarden's report from Mountolive:

Good, though I, I shall have a look at that; but treading unwarily I came upon a grotesque scene which I would gladly have avoided if I had been able.  The camels of Narouz were being cut up for the feast.  Poor things, they knelt there peacefully with their forelegs folded under them like cats while a horde of men attacked them with axes in the moonlight.  My blood ran cold, yet I could not tear myself away from this extraordinary spectacle.  The animals made no move to avoid the blows, uttered no cries as they were dismembered.  The axes bit into them, as if their great bodies were made of cork, sinking deep under every thrust.  Whole members were being hacked off as painlessly, it seemed, as when a tree is pruned.  The children were dancing about in the moonlight picking up the fragments and running off with them into the lighted town, great gobbets of bloody meat.  The camels stared hard at the moon and said nothing.  Off came the legs, out came the entrails; lastly the heads would topple under the axe like statuary and lie there in the sand with open eyes.  The men doing the axing were shouting and bantering as they worked.  A huge soft carpet of black blood spread into the dunes around the group and the barefoot boys carried the print of it back with them into the township.  I felt frightfully ill of a sudden and retired back to the lighted quarter for a drink; and sitting on a bench watched the passing show for a while to recover my nerve. (Faber 1962: 487 - 488)




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Charles L. Sligh
Assistant Professor
Department of English
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
charles-sligh at utc.edu<mailto:charles-sligh at utc.edu>
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