202 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



he suddenly disappeared, murdered without a doubt by his 

 attendants for the money he was well known to have about him. 



We had a very cheery al-fresco dinner under the date-palms 

 and the glorious desert sky, crowning the feast with a Christmas 

 pudding specially prepared by a soldier servant, a feat on which 

 he greatly prided himself. After a little whiskey, which in 

 some mysterious manner had found its way up here, and tobacco 

 of course, we retired to rest. But the pudding proved too much 

 for mine; a most vivid nightmare disturbed my slumbers, a 

 nightmare many times repeated, in which I rode a monstrous 

 camel, certainly not less than 50 feet high, along the lofty 

 bank of the Nile which ran glittering in the moonbeams far, 

 far below. The camel, not content with its usual steady 

 pace, swayed to and fro like a ship in a beam sea, and every 

 moment a sudden descent into the cool waters seemed more 

 than probable. It was truly a terrible night, and never shall 

 I forget the plum-pudding, or rather the consequences of my 

 Christmas dinner in 1882. It is sincerely to be hoped that the 

 recipe of that pudding is lost for ever! 



We all were more or less overcome next morning, but ill or 

 well the day's march had to be done and the distance lessened 

 to Khorti, the place of assembly and of starting to cross the 

 terrible Bayuda desert. 



Two other Christmas Days were passed in Africa, one north 

 of the Equator, the other south. The former was in 1881, when 

 a friend and I made a good march through very arid burnt-up 

 country and among sterile mountains along the dry bed of the 

 Baraka River en route from Suakim to the borders of Abyssinia. 

 Late in the afternoon we unloaded the camels near a disused 

 well dug in the sandy river-bed ; the water was very scarce and 

 terribly foul, the taste of which neither tea, coffee, nor cocoa 

 could remove ; we had, however, plenty of gazelle meat, so 

 everybody was content. Our own dinner consisted of antelope 

 soup and chops, gazelle liver, and a plum-pudding, which had 

 been brought from England specially for this night. And then 

 into the blanket, to sleep under the deep-blue sky illuminated 

 by myriads of the most brilliant stars which sparkled through 

 the feathery foliage of the beautiful camel thorns under which 

 we slept. 



