THE CAMEL CORPS. 83 whose rich accoutrements showed that their owners found war a paying trade, and townsfolk who, perched on their high wooden saddles, their long robes bound closely round their waists, intended evidently to make a desperate struggle for victory. At last, profiting by a moment when all the competi¬ tors seemed to be in line—a result to obtain which had taken some threequarters of an hour—the signal was given to go, and the camels started. Then some trotted, some galloped, some turned themselves round and round seeking to tie themselves in knots and refusing to move forward, others threw themselves on the ground and rolled their riders off, and one or two, disen¬ gaging themselves from the crowd, started off in a mad breakneck gallop to¬ wards the hills, their riders, albeit wild sons of the desert, unable to do more than cling to the beasts for dear life. Every now and then occurred a terrific collision between two eager competitors, which flung both camels and riders to the ground. As the beasts rounded the turning post the confusion became proportionate to the excitement. Many camels never got round the post at all, but fell to fighting one with another on the far side of it, in which con¬ flicts their riders, when natives, soon took part with right good will. Others sought to cheat, diminishing the distance by a hundred yards or so, but these defaulters were promptly ‘spotted ’ and hounded off the course by the watch¬ ful stewards. The winner was greeted as he passed the post by such cheers as completely disconcerted the poor brute, and had not his rider warily fore¬ stalled him he would have turned back in flight from before the crowd of spectators. The race was a good one, and one of the most interesting features about it was the fact that, although the winning camel was ridden by a native, the English soldiers, whose acquaintance with camels dated from but a fort¬ night, seemed to hold their own very fairly against the natives, who were, so to speak, born and bred camel-riders. As to knowledge of the habits of the brute and adaptability to a long journey, the superiority of the native is, of course, incontestible ; but at this short trial of speed the Englishmen showed themselves not much his inferiors.”

Lord Wolseley has not found himself free from criticism in the manner in which he organized this camel corps. Major-General Sir Henry Green, K.C.S.I., C.B., advocated the sending of a camel corps from India,—“a proper camel corps,” he said, “not that nondescript force with a heavy dragoon perched on the top of the hump of a camel which Lord Wolseley has improvised on the Nile, but a camel corps such as was raised by the late Sir C. Napier in Scinde, and the organization of which has been elaborated ever since. The proper camel corps is based upon one fundamental principle, which is essential to success in dealing with camels, and that is that each camel must be under the control of a man who understands it. There is no more delicate brute in the world than a camel unless it is properly looked