24 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



worse. It will walk under overhanging branches, and if not on 

 his guard, brush the rider off like a fly, and go through all kinds 

 of gymnastic exercises, putting one's bones in jeopardy ; but all 

 this is a trifle when compared with what one goes through when 

 the camel trots. It is no use trying to talk ; one's teeth are 

 knocked together, with the probability of seeing half of one's 

 tongue roll into the sand ; the bumping is terrible ; one's 

 internal organs seem to jolt together in hopeless and painful 

 confusion, and then you have to hold on to your saddle, to your 

 guns, to your hat, to your everything, not to enlarge upon the 

 aromatic breezes which the camel wafts into one's face direct 

 from the laboratory of his stomach. No ; somebody has truly 

 said that the difference between the motion of a hygeen-trotting- 

 camel and that of a baggage-camel is as great as that between 

 a thoroughbred hack and a carthorse. We were not able to obtain 

 hygeens, so had to be content with the best of our baggage- 

 camels, which, in spite of all their roughness and the many 

 annoyances they caused us, were far less tiring than horses 

 would have been, as we afterwards found, on these long marches 

 in the deep sand of the river-bed. These journeys seemed very 

 long and monotonous ; there was little variety in the scenery ; 

 the same green banks, high, arid mountains in the distance, and 

 lower hills covered with mimosa bushes approaching the river, or 

 some very black volcanic rocks, whose fantastic shapes were 

 often very remarkable. We sometimes met a few natives, 

 armed with spear and shield, who never failed to greet us with 

 the usual " Salaam aleikoum" May God protect you which 

 kindly wish we returned with " Aleikoum salaam." Then fol- 

 lowed the customary shaking of hands, and mutual inquiries 

 after one another's health, which it is the correct thing to repeat 

 as often as possible, in order that each party may be thoroughly 

 convinced of the excellence or otherwise of the other's health. 

 Then, perhaps, a long string of camels would pass laden with 

 dhurra, native corn, in large mat bags made of the plaited palm 

 leaf ; or we would meet some black soldiers, looking very black 

 in contrast to their white tunic and trousers and red fez, return- 

 ing from collecting taxes among the villages further south. 

 These are, as a rule, very tall, often very powerful men, who 

 take great pride in their arms, and often, no doubt, have very 

 difficult tasks to perform in squeezing tribute out of the wily 



