CHRISTMAS-TIME IN FOUR CONTINENTS 201 



lashed together were placed at my disposal. The shipment 

 of the camels proved no easy matter ; gentle persuasion with 

 endearing epithets failing to touch their heart, the Aden boys 

 had to drag and push them down the hank by main force and 

 then into the boats which were just large enough to take three 

 at a time. Once in the boat the animals were made to lie down 

 at right angles to the keel, two facing one way, the head of the 

 third in line with the tails of the others. The work was 

 attended by a good deal of swearing, spitting, biting, and 

 groaning on the part of the camels, and by thoroughly forcible 

 language on that of the men, but the boats, however frail they 

 no doubt were, did their duty well, and before the sun set in its 

 desert glory the detachment was across without mishap. 



Beyond the fringe of palms the dep6t camels, several hundred 

 in number, were picketed in long lines; a very interesting 

 spectacle, now when they were sleek and well fed and well 

 tended. All their hard work was to come ; excessive hardships, 

 added to severe privations during the desert marches, caused 

 the death of almost all of them. 



Full arrangements for the Christmas dinner had already been 

 made, and when at last the supreme moment came six hungry 

 people sat down at a table improvised of various boxes and of 

 anything upon which a plate could be put. The place next to me 

 remained vacant for some time, but presently the belated guest 

 approached with stately step and proud bearing, dark as a 

 native and clad in the long white spotless robes of a Moor. 

 My misgivings as to possibility of anything beyond the slightest 

 conversation with my neighbour were rapidly dispelled, for to 

 my surprise he wished us good evening in perfect English. 

 It was Abdul-Kadir, then a well-known personage, an English- 

 man by birth but really a Moor, for most of his life had been 

 passed in Morocco. Being thoroughly at home in the Arab 

 language and customs he had been sent up the Nile to get 

 letters through to Gordon, which he successfully accomplished. 

 He proved on further acquaintance a very interesting personage 

 and a cheerful companion on the long marches as he rode his 

 high-class camel escorted by several negroes armed with the 

 long Arab spear and various other weapons. We saw a great 

 deal of him afterwards, especially near Matemmah on the other 

 side of the Bayuda desert, but on the return of the Expedition 



