HOW TO GET UP. 29

your leg over. With his head jammed like that, he

cannot rise, and must wait till you give him his head.

Unless you do as directed, he will get up before your

leg is over ; if this happens, stand in the stirrup till he

is up, and then throw your leg over, otherwise you will

infallibly meet with a hideous catastrophe. We found

that with the rifle in the bucket it was impossible to get

one's leg over, so always made the men pass the sling

of the rifle over their left wrists before getting on.

After a time we found it easier to stand alongside and

give a big heave of the right leg over the saddle

without touching the near stirrup at all. So much for

mounting; dismounting is, of course, the same reversed.

We had the fact repeatedly impressed on us that

we were not to be used as cavalry at all, that we were

never to fight on our camels, and in fact that they

were only to be used as means of rapid transport

from one place to another. Accordingly, we did rot

tire our beasts by trotting for long distances. Although

they could carry a native so for a long time, it was

different when they had on their back a thirteen stone

man, with all his kit and paraphernalia, and their own