70 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 



the insidious attacks made on it by the high-class 

 cookery we were supposed to be having. 



It was a long time before I got used to the hot 

 nauseating smell of the camels. It was ever present in 

 camp, and when the wind blew into one's tent the 

 indescribable aroma transcended all others. Barring 

 the horrid odour, we had nothing else to complain of 

 in our patient dumb servants. The camels were good 

 tempered beasts, taking them all round ; very different 

 to Indian camels, among whom it would have been 

 impossible to wander so nonchalantly o' nights. All 

 our camels, save one, were of the white variety usually 

 to be found in Berbera. The one exception was a 

 trojan creature, dark and swarthy looking, who hailed 

 from distant Zeila. He was a splendid worker, untiring 

 and ungrumbling, never roaring at loading-up time. 

 But the Gel Ad, or Berbera, camel is considered 

 by experts to be the better animal. We preferred 

 "Zeila" to any animal we had; we christened him 

 after his home. It is very odd, and may be will be 

 found difficult to understand, as to explain, but in 

 some of the camels' faces we traced the most speaking 

 likenesses to friends and relatives, either through ex- 

 pression, form, or fancy. Anyway, they were like many 

 of our acquaintances ; and so, to Cecily and myself, 

 the different camels were thoroughly described and 

 known as "Uncle Robert," "Aunt Helena," or "Mrs. 

 Stacy," and so on and so forth. One haughty white 

 camel, with a lofty sneer of disdain and arrogance 

 about it, was so very like a human beauty of our 

 acquaintance that we smiled every time we looked at 



