STRANGE CREATURE
In the extreme desert parts of the Earth you may expect to find one the world's strangest animals – available in two standard models - the one called Bacterium with one hump and the other - the Dromedary – with two such humps topside. Usually few people consider a camel pleasant or beautiful to have around. Body odors prevail it their midst and they are said to have a bad habits of spitting or each other and nearby humans. Many people insist that camels are best seen at a distance. They are said to have been designed by a committee; body odors are a part of their being and they spit on each other and humans when given a chance to do so.
The “kamal”, also used primarily in the sandy soil sections of Earth, is a primitive type of navigational tool used by desert tribesmen roaming dessert tribes.
All you need to make such a tool is a small piece of wood or heavy cardboard -perhaps the end of a cigar box; about two inches in height, four inches across and 3/ 4 of an inch thick with with fairly smoothed surfaces. You will just one other component and that would be a piece of string measuring the sane as your extended arm , plus another piece of similar string used to tie knots along the main piece.
There will be fourteen such locations along the length of arm-long string on which knots will be tied. Knowing exactly where to place each of those knots is of vital concern. The stars will tell you.. Five of the knots are tight ones and four of them will be tight but with an half-inch or so of cord hanging loose. Start about four inches from the far end of the string. Run it through the board in a hole cut in the center of the control board because it will subject to pulling pressures.
The first knot will be made in the series using small pieces
of the extra string because they may have to be altered. Do not tie knits in the main string. There are three such tight knots to start with followed by one dangle type. They are an inch apart. Then, along two inches add one of each..then one single plus one dangle two inches further along the string. Two more inches and you tie a single; jump one inch and tie another like it – ten knots in all, thus far with five to go. From that ten-count spot move two inches and tie a dangle; then one inch more and tie a single, 2 inches more and tie a dangle following a single knot which will be tied four inches from the end of the extended string.
By this time you may feel “fit to be tied” yourself, but remember once you learn how to use your own,individual
kamal your are never going be a model for one of those arid figures crawling across hot desert sands seeking water.
To use the kamal hold the board in one hand and extend it the edge of the night sky. Place the string between your teeth at the point the point where you tied you initial knot. Move the board along the sky rim at a level of about one inch above the horizon. As knots slip between your teeth , identify each with the star seen at that spot. That knot told the ancient Nabatean navigator how distant the star was – how many “isbas” it was above him. Then, using that knowledge he could deduce the altitude of the Pole Star, and even though he may not be able to see it, he knew where it was in the sky.
Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 12-9-06 [c630wds]
