38 WITH THE CAMEL CORPS UP THE NILE.

wonderfully in my estimation some time afterwards, when we were in the thick of " real business " in the Bayuda Desert, on seeing the patient way in which our poor camels walked on and on, with no food or water whatever inside them, till they dropped dead in their tracks ; but of that hereafter.

I cherished a great affection for my own camel, named Potiphar, a great upstanding white beast of some 22 hands, who reciprocated it by bellowing every time I came near, and making playful rushes at me. I really think I succeeded in making him know and care for me after a time, for he ceased his attacks, and reduced his bellow to a grumble ; but he got no further in his love than that. His pace was usually very slow, and required continual whacking, but when excited he walked away from the others ; his trot was not one of his good points in fact, his chief talent lay in doing more work and breaking down less than any of the others. He carried me from Wady Haifa to Metammeh, and back to Gakdul, making two extra journeys from Gubat to Gakdul and back,