Myths and Legends

How the camel got his

hump         

Long before our ape ancestors took their first steps, there was camel without a hump on his back. He lived with a group of animals, a bear, a crocodile, a cow and an ostrich. That camel loved stealing their food. The animals were so annoyed.

One day, though, while the other animals went gardening, the camel went too far. He ate all of their emergency food for winter that they gathered last week! When the animals came home, all they saw was the fat camel, wandering around from den to den, trying to find any more food.

Bear was so fed up, that he decided to deal with this once and for all. So he gathered all the animals in his den. The animals gathered as much grass as they could, and glued it on some stones with some tree sap. Lastly, they hid in the bushes, with cow munching all of the grass around the stones.

For what seemed like an hour, the annoyed animals eagerly waited for camel. This had given him enough time to wander to every den. Finally, the camel came trotting along.

“What do we have here cousin?” he said. (Cow was Camel’s cousin)

He quickly swallowed the stones covered in grass. POP!! On his back grew a huge hump, and the stones had built up inside him. At first, camel thought it was very ugly, and immediately lost his appetite.

He banished himself in the desert forever, only eating dry grass and water, but never again does he steal any other animals’ food (he even grew to like his hump!)  

Written by Aaliya