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 55 to any animal we had ; we christened him 
after his home. It is very odd, and maybe 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 
