HADENDOWAH ARAB CAMEL-MEN.
He pointed out the ringleaders of what looked like mutiny against authority, and as soon as he had done so, in true old English fashion, a few well-directed blows put about five Arabs in the prone position; all pulled out revolvers, and made them pile their spears, which were at once secured, tied in a bundle, and given in charge to the English servants. They were then made to re-load all the camels, and, at great inconvenience to ourselves, we re-start at 6.30, and march until nearly ten, just to let them see that they could not do as they liked, and that we were masters and not they. This assertion of authority had a most beneficial effect on the native mind. It was past eleven that night ere we dined, and I retired to rest at half-past twelve, with a feeling of general bruising and dislocated vertebræ easily accounted for, as I was unaccustomed to the peculiar motion of a camel, which has a knack of shaking up one’s liver in a most effectual manner. Referring to my diary, I find that on our third day’s march, Dec. 17th, the temperature was 82° F. in the shade at 1.30 p.m. I generally took the temperature when we halted for luncheon, which would usually be about one or half-past. We could do with the dry heat very well as we were mounted, but now, in consequence of the late heavy rains, we felt it very relaxing, and just like a Russian vapour-bath. The Red Sea was still visible to the east of us; to the west, a large tract of desert, backed up by impassable rocky mountains. We now saw desert gazelles for the first time, and one of the party brought one down, thus providing dinner for the evening. We marched from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m., came to water then, and pitched our tents near to it. We generally had very good water, but here it had a brackish taste; still, with the aid of four bottles of champagne, we managed to slake our thirst tolerably well. So far the mimosa and kittar bushes were abundant, particularly during the first two days, but on the fourth day we saw very few indeed, and marched through absolute desert, saw nothing but the burning sands, and huge rocks of volcanic origin. We filled our barrels, zanzimeers and girbas with water before we started, and again marched from ten till six; temp. 81° in the shade. A girba is the skin of a gazelle dressed. It is dressed in the following way by the Arabs:—They get the chopped red bark of the mimosa tree, and put in the skin with water, it is allowed to remain there for three or four days and then it is converted into leather. This day we encamped at a place called Settareb. On the fifth day we again made the usual march, and shot two gazelles. We started off at nine—and left the caravan to follow. About 11 a.m. one of our servants caught us up with the information that some of the camels had been lost. Messrs. A. and W. James returned to see about them, and found that it was a dodge of the camel-drivers, who thought they would try to sneak back to Souâkin. The camels were easily found; the two camel-drivers were tied together, marched into camp, duly admonished and punished. At 5 p.m. we come to water, turn out all the brackish water, fill our barrels, &c., and march until 6 p.m.; temp. 82° in shade. Dine at 7.30, bed at 10 p.m., but before going to bed we had all the camel-drivers up, some of whom appeared inclined to be mutinous. We gave them a sound lecturing, and let them distinctly understand that we would not stand this kind of thing any more, and that the next offence would be punished with the coorbatch. Our camping ground is called Wadi Osier. The next day, our sixth in the desert, Mr. F. L. James and I had a somewhat unpleasant experience. After luncheon, as usual, we all rested awhile, allowing the caravan to go on. Mr. F. L. J. and I, who were absorbed with our books, remained long after our comrades had proceeded on their journey. When at last we did start, we were surprised to find how late it was getting. Knowing that there is little or no twilight in these parts, we hurried on, hoping to catch the caravan ere darkness overtook us, but could not do so. Darkness comes on—a most profound darkness, too—and we lose the track; we dismount and light matches to see if we can find it again. We don’t, however, succeed in doing so. Nothing now remains but to remount our camels and trust to them and Providence. On we go, at the rate of four miles an hour. The silence of the tomb and the darkness of Erebus surround us; not a glimmer of light could be seen in any direction, not the sound of a wild animal, of a bird, or even the rustling of a leaf, or the sigh of the softest zephyr. When we had gone on thus for about an hour, neither seeing a light, nor hearing a sound, we began to get uneasy, not knowing if we were going in the right direction, but knowing full well that it might prove to be a serious matter if we strayed off into the limitless waste of the desert. Every now and again I fired a shot from my revolver, but I might as well have used a pop-gun. Now the stars begin to make their appearance; by them we see that we are, as we think, pursuing some track. We now dismount, and finding that revolvers are useless, Mr. James gets his rifle and lets off one barrel. We wait, and anxiously look for a corresponding flash; hear we could not, as by this time a slight breeze had sprung up, and was blowing from us towards our caravan. Another barrel is now fired, but no reply. We were now rapidly coming to the conclusion that we should have to tie our camels to a mimosa bush, and sleep out without food, and what was still worse, without water, as both our zanzimeers were nearly empty. Still we perseveringly jogged on, and after a time discharged another barrel. In a few minutes’ time we see a slight flash, which appears to be so far off that we cannot make out whether it is in the heavens or on the earth. Not a sound reaches our ears. Our cartridges are also nearly exhausted, and we have all but made up our minds to sleep out, but try the rifle once more. This time both barrels are discharged one after the other. We look out anxiously; not a sound reaches us, but we see a corresponding double flash a long way off, and are convinced that this comes from our camp. We see certain stars over the spot, and for these we steer. When we had jogged on for another hour and a-half, we see a glimmering light like the flicker of a lantern (it really was a huge bonfire)—another half-hour, and we can plainly see lanterns moving about, and to our great relief and that of our friends, we gain the camp at 9 p.m., thoroughly hungry, thirsty, and tired. The temperature this day was 86° in the shade; my ears and nose were quite scorched, and smarting from the heat of the sun.
On arriving in camp I found Jules very ill indeed. On the fourth day he came to me in the evening complaining of a bilious attack. I gave him something for it. In some respects he was better by the evening of the fifth, and on the morning of the 6th bilious vomiting had ceased, but in the evening, judging from the symptoms, I was afraid that formidable complaint, dysentery, was setting in. However, I kept this to myself, at present, not wishing to alarm the camp, and hoping that treatment might prove beneficial. We dined at 10.30, and retired to bed at 12 p.m. When I say we retired to bed I literally mean that, not to a shake-down sort of thing with a rug over me and a portmanteau for a pillow, but a comfortable bed with a comfortable pillow, in a comfortable tent, and cocoa-matting on the ground. There really was an air of comfort about all our surroundings. We had comfortable shut-up and open-out chairs, a comfortable folding-up table, each a nice portable india-rubber bath, and, whenever we encamped by water we each had a bath before breakfast and another before dinner. As for eatables and drinkables, the most fastidious would not turn up their noses at those. We had sufficient champagne and claret to last us during the whole campaign; a freezing machine, so that we could have these iced in the hottest weather. We had gozogenes and any amount of seltzer-water, and when we fell short of that we used Eno’s fruit-salt in the gozogenes. We had Peek Frean and Co’s. biscuits, Cross and Blackwell’s excellent Chutnee pickles and pickalili, tomato sauce, asparagus, green peas, plum puddings, French jams, minced collops, kidneys, tinned soups from Fortnum and Mason’s, Piccadilly, and everything else one could think of to insure comfort in eating, drinking, and sleeping. Some ascetics would say we were of the earth, earthy, but I maintain that if you mean to keep a mens sana in corpore sano one may just as well—and a great deal better—build up the waste tissue from time to time and travel with every comfort, if one can afford it, as do the reverse. I have tried both; whilst campaigning in Turkey, when I have been on the march with the army, I have indulged in the luxury of a small onion and a limited piece of somewhat indifferent bread for breakfast, washed down with a drop of water, the same again for luncheon, and the same again for dinner, “and still I was not happy,” for I could comfortably have disposed of breakfast, luncheon, and dinner at one sitting without the slightest inconvenience. The ground was my bed, the canopy of heaven was my tent, the twinkling stars my lantern, and a stone or water-jug with a coat rolled round it was my pillow. I shall endeavour to avoid the slightest exaggeration in this book, and will go so far as to say that the former mode of travelling is by far the most comfortable, and, in my humble opinion, the most conducive to health.
Again I find myself branching off, and cannot give any guarantee but what I may still do so. All I ask is that my readers will overlook this little failing of mine.
7th day.—We found water here, and of course replenished everything with this valuable fluid. The mimosas were scanty and very stunted here. During the night and all this day a great wind has been blowing, producing a most blinding sand-storm, fortunately at our backs, or we should not have been able to proceed. No one can form any idea of the intense discomfort of a sand-storm, unless he has been in one. I may close up my tent and be roasted inside. I may lock up my portmanteau, which fits pretty closely, and have it in my tent, the lock covered with leather, yet when I go to bed I find the sheets brown with sand, the most secret recesses of my portmanteau and the lock filled with sand, and my writing-case also, which is inside. I open my mouth to speak, and I can masticate sand, if so disposed. I eat—all my food is full of sand. I drink, not water, but water and sand. In fact, sand is everywhere; eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, brains, and everything else has a mixture of sand about it. I chance to leave a book, a pair of boots, or anything else outside my tent, they soon become invisible, and are covered inches deep in sand. Here we found great difficulty in pitching our tents, as there was nothing but sand to drive the pegs into, and then we came to rocks. Three or four days ago a lame woman and a man joined our caravan, and two days ago two men, all bound for Kassala, all pilgrims from Mecca. They were allowed to accompany us, and we fed them. To-day we miss the woman, and on inquiry find that she was knocked up en route yesterday, and so her companion left her to die, and probably when we discovered this she had been picked clean by jackals and vultures. Such is the value put upon human life out here.
8th day.—The sand-storm still rages with unabated violence. We decide not to go on, but encamp here to-day. We are, however, obliged to move our tents to a place that is a little more sheltered, as at present it is absolutely miserable. Jules still very ill. Temperature 86° in the shade. In the day time the fierce heat of the sun rendered the interior of the tents like ovens. Outside the sand reflected the heat. Although producing great personal discomfort, our sufferings were nothing to what poor Jules endured, who is now unmistakably suffering from dysentery badly. Under any circumstances this is a grave complaint to have, but under present circumstances, doubly so; that which he requires is impossible to obtain, namely, absolute rest and a suitable diet. The poor fellow complains to-day of incessant thirst, and everything he gets to eat or drink is impregnated with sand, which it is impossible to avoid.
About 12 meridie, Mr. Phillipps, who was passing across the camp, saw the two pilgrims whom we had allowed to join the caravan, two brothers. One was supporting the head of the other in the blazing sun. The poor fellow’s eyes, nose, ears, and hair, &c. were full of sand. He said his brother was ill. I was at once called to him, and found him in articulo mortis. Very little could be done for him, and in twenty minutes’ time he died. His brother borrowed a spade, dug a shallow grave near the camp and buried him, putting a mound of little white stones on the grave. In my journey across the desert I frequently came across these graves, sometimes two or three together, sometimes 20, 50, or 100. Occasionally skeletons of camels were met with. In the present instance, the poor fellow who died looked very emaciated and weak, probably exhausted by constant marching and a deficient supply of food. But he had accomplished the pilgrimage to Mecca, and I suppose he died a happy man.
9th day.—Poor Jules is so ill to-day that I cannot consent to have him removed. The camp is accordingly split up, Mr. Phillipps and I, with a few camels and attendants, remaining behind. The sand-storm is abating, but the heat is very great and trying to Jules. A gazelle was shot to-day. I cannot say that gazelle is a particularly toothsome morsel under our circumstances. We are obliged to cook it on the same day that it has been killed. The flesh of a desert gazelle is hard, and has very little flavour. Our comrades left us about 10 a.m., and directly they had gone down came the vultures for pickings.
10th day.—Jules still very ill, but in some respects a trifle better. We decide on advancing to-day, if possible, and encamp a little longer when we get to water. Accordingly we strike our tents and help the camel men to load, send them on, then see to our own. We do not get off until 4.30 p.m. Half-an-hour afterwards we come to a dry river course, on each side of which are dhoum palms and other trees. We saw a couple of jackals sneaking off here, but did not get a shot at them. We trusted to one of our Arabs to show us the way. When we had gone on for about an hour, he suddenly stopped in the middle of a great sandy plain, said he was not sure of the way, and as it was getting dark, thought we had better stop until daylight. On hearing this Mr. Phillipps retraced his steps, and was absent about two hours. I now became anxious about him, and every now and then fired off my revolver. Fortunately I happened to have a box of matches with me, and kindled a fire, then Mahoom and I tore up all the stuff that would ignite. Half-an-hour afterwards Mr. Phillipps found us, but he had been unsuccessful in his search for the road. However, we kept up the fire, hoping some of our camel men would see the signals of distress, which fortunately they did after a time; at last one of them found us. In the meantime Jules was lying on the ground exhausted, with a rug thrown over him. Our man led us to where the other camels were. Now we had another bother: one of the camels had thrown his load off; the old fellow who was in charge was lying on the ground, said he had got a pain in his stomach, and we must stop there, as he could not possibly go on. We roused him up, gave him a good shaking, and made him come on. But he soon stopped again, and laid down to sleep, most coolly saying he could not go any further. The fact is that just before we started he had eaten a large quantity of raw meat, had, in fact, thoroughly gorged himself. However, there we left him, and went on another two or three miles. Halted at 10 p.m. and kindled a fire, had a cup of cocoa, a bit of bread, rolled ourselves up in rugs, and lay on the ground. Jules suffered much from this, as the nights were so cold.
11th day.—Up early, feeling stiff, cold, and hungry. Marched until 10 a.m. (four hours), intending to rest during the excessive heat of the day, as my poor invalid was almost too weak to set up. About 3 p.m. Mr. F. L. James appears on the scene, and tells us that the camp is only about four miles off, at a place called Waudy. We get there about 6.30 p.m., and find the camp pitched near a well surrounded by dhoum palms. Temperature to-day, 88° in the shade. This being Christmas Day, we had some excellent plum puddings, made by Crosse and Blackwell, iced champagne, and other luxuries for dinner.