82 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

appropriate pet name—often a highly amusing one. One old salt, before his ill'st mount, was very anxious to know which end of his beast got up first—no useless query, for the process by which a camel rises to his feet is a compli¬ cated and an uncomfortable one. His question was answered before his eyes, for one of his messmates who had neglected to inform himself on this point, or who had, perhaps, been misinformed by some flippant landsman, was sent head over heels over the neck of his animal when it made the first move in rising.

He is an extraordinary brute, the camel; save when worn out by fatigue he is never quiet. He is never at any time happy ; he will bite at the hand that tends and feeds him with the same animosity that he exhibits towards the hand that loads and bridles him. He knows nought of gratitude, is be¬ reft of any of the softer passions, and looks on whomsoever approaches him for whatever purpose as his bitterest enemy. In spite, however, of the way¬ wardness of the brute, the men sought by care and attention to improve his health and appearance by every means in their power. They even went so far as to groom him, an attention to which the camel is altogether unaccus¬ tomed, and which at first so filled him with astonishment as to deprive him of the power to protest. Soon, however, it dawned upon him that he was being cleaned, and, his resentment quickly roused, he at once filled the air with hideous roars and groans, which he never failed to renew each time the pro¬ cess was repeated.

Laughable above all things was the sight of Lord Charles Beresford, who, mounted on a donkey, led the naval brigade towering above him on their camels. This celebrated animal of Lord Charles’s was by name, “The County of Waterford,” so called by his lordship because the second time he contested him he lost his seat.

In their long march and frequent stoppages at the towns on the river bank, there was time for an occasional letting off of the high spirits of the men which had by no means been damped by the difficulties of the road. At Dongola, especially, a few festivities were indulged in while awaiting the arrival of the main body. Amongst other things a camel race was arranged for. It has been well described by an onlooker : “The scene at the starting post was quaint in the extreme. Camels were there of every size and hue, bellowing one and all as though in direst agony ; some of them bestridden by English soldiers on their red leather saddles, some by officers who preferred the comfortable Soudan saddle, some by naked Bischari or Ababdeh, sons of the desert, who not unfrequently dis daining saddles of any kind, sat perched on the rump of the animal as on a jackass, aud guided their beasts by the nostril string alone. Here and there among the crowd were Bashi Bazouks on slim-necked, slender-legged animals,