THE BLACKS AGAIN. 219 of decay than ever. I am afraid that by this time we looked on them as mere machines for carrying, and hardly thought of their sufferings from hunger and thirst as long as they could be whacked along.

Eventually we were more or less suited with steeds, though certainly some looked as if they could not go another yard. At six o'clock next morning our force started as ordered, and a curious sight it was. My post, in charge of that everlasting baggage, was just in rear of the Soudanese, and though the crowd of men and women were a great nuisance, getting in everybody's way and not keeping up, still one could not help laughing at the quaint sights. Here, a coal-black negress was perched on top of a camel (stolen of course), bestriding all her household goods and chattels in the shape of rags, bowls, carpets and pots, whilst her husband (or Kssibly owner) led the beast, or prodded it up with > spear from behind. There, an old man, who might have come from any nation under the sun, so nondescript was his colour and raiment, was trudging merrily along, his rifle slung over his shoulder and his