Le premier qui vit un chameau/S’enfuit de cet objet nouveau;/Le second s’approcha; le troisième osa faire/Un licou pour le dromadaire.
-Jean de la Fontaine (1621-1695)
There is something of a Sarāb, Mirage, to this fable. The first glance at a camel is deceptive. Blink and it’s gone, or has not gone away but rather has come closer, or was never in fact there. Lane gives Sarāb’s cognate word Sarb as, Pasturing of Camels, or, Camels, derived from the triliteral root S-R-B, He Went Out, or, the Water Flowed Swiftly, or, the Camel Went to Pasture without a Herdsman. KhairAllah would like a word with La Fontaine…No need to put a Licou, Halter, on a free-grazing Jamal.