CROSSING THE JUBA RIVER 



after is clear profit ; for they send their camels out 

 to graze in the middle of the day, and their keep 

 therefore costs nothing. 



Getting the camels across the Juba River was 

 a slow and tedious proceeding. Early in the 

 morning they were collected close to the shore on 

 the Italian side in charge of my head camel syce, 

 a handsome Herti Somali of about thirty-five years 

 of age, Farar Ali by name, whom I had engaged 

 the day before. He had served as orderly and inter- 

 preter to an officer in the K.A.R. some years before, 

 and his frank cheerful countenance impressed me 

 very favourably. Nor was my first estimate of his 

 character falsified by subsequent events, for he 

 proved invaluable, faithful, obliging and hard- 

 working, and a better companion in the bush it 

 would be impossible to find. Sixteen natives 

 manned a large flat-bottomed boat, and the camels 

 were led two by two to the water's edge, not without 

 difficulty ; for no animal is more helpless in the mud 

 than they, and many times I thought they would 

 slip and break a leg. Once there, they were made 

 to lie down ; a noose was slipped over their lower 

 jaw and they were dragged over the mud, powerless 

 to resist, to the side of the boat ; the crazy old barge 

 was then poled out into the river, three men holding 

 the camels' heads above water. Once they had 

 reached the other side, the animals struggled out 

 with much splashing and gurgling ; they were then 

 untied, when they at once rolled in the clean sand, 

 and kneeling down patiendy awaited the coming 

 of the others. Only two camels were brought over 

 at a time, so it took seven trips to complete the 

 passage of my fourteen animals, and it was not till 



63 



