The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1896-11-07
RIDING oN LIE Z a
II l. SOt So u-npseasant as certail
Seasons.

-
II L. SOt so unpseasant "a csrtala
Seasons.
Wishing to give our baggage camels
another days rest before starting on
the trying journey from Murat Wells
TO Wady HaIfa, we profted by the delay
to take a long ride out on the Abu-Ham-
ed road with our good friend, Alb
dull Aim Bey. The ostensible OBJ
ject of this journey vas to see a huge
rock in the shape Of a crocodile that
Abdul Aim had discovered not long
since about a couple of hours out from
Murat, and a few hundred yards away
from the Abu-Hamed track.
This rock; said our guide, had never vet
been seen by Europeans.
Mounted on a couple of our friends
best bred running camels, and escorted
by some half dozen w~ell-armed tribes
men on small, active beasts, as swift as
u own, we set out on that fast trot
which is so pleasant on a well-b bred Had
juy as IN a rough, hard-set brute it is
eScruciatingly painful. 1t was just aft
er dawn, and the air was delicious. for
the sun does not get. to be really fierce
until after seven a. M, and as we wound
down the Khor, and out among the
Kopjes of the desert with q pleasant
breeze tanning our faces, with the cam
els pads striking crisply on the firm,
gravelly sand, and the mems accoutre-
ments jingling rythmicaly as they
logged along, we felt blood Jingle
and u spirits buoyant with the exhil-
aration due partly to the glorious eli
mate and partly to the thought that we
really were at least wenn within the
enemy's borders.
For, as Abdul Aim said. when we
had ridden an hour or SO, xnly one Eura,-
Pean, since the Nile campaign, had been
nearer Khartoum than ourselves This
adventurous spirit was Col. Rumble
Pasha, who in 1885 and 1886 rode SO far
towards Abu[Hamed that arom a hill
top he was able to see that town and
the Nile.
Not alone were ourselves affected by
that lovely morning. Its glamour was
over escort of Abadeh generally
the most taciturn of folks), four of
whom were co1olucting an eager g
menta at hot speed in their quaint print
tive language, with itN absurd. bewil-
dering elk" i~nterjected, it would
seem quite involuntarily, at every third
word. The others of our escort were
chanting alternate verses ofI1gubrious
song, in whose refrain the moan Of
the sakeeah, the buzz of a saw and the
ereaking of m INCREASED wagon wheel
appeared to be deity blended with
the grousing of the refractory camel.
The camels themselves seemed to be
affected by themorning air. or. perhaps.
1T was by the song. They all demeaned
themselves quite sllfttishly. and one
was SO overcome by his sense Of the
1oyousness of things that he began sud
denly to buck. Now, a bucking camelis.
Of all the pleasant sights in nature, the
most laughable. The great beast seems
at these moments of expansion to put
off his camel nature, and to imagine
himself literally the humming bird to
which Mr.. Kipling's fancy has COM
pared him.
Y instance, when the spirit moves
him to buck, the Gamer of a sudden hurIs
his great bulk high into the air, spread
ing out all his splay limbs at right
angles to his unwieldy carcass. And
he alights, after this grotesque effort,
with his feet all abroad, and a rock
splitting, spine-dissolying thud, only to
make a fresh and more e-xtravagant de
parture. it is a soul-stirring perform
ance. He brings a marvellous persever-
ance to the exercise, and will'keep it up
' half a mile of country. But it is
the humming bird he is aping all the
while, the graceful colibri flashing Jew
el-like into the air (here the camel pro-
5ects himself into space) or posing
+eather-like on the oleander blossom
(here he cracks a mountain on alight-
ing.) And he seems quite satisfied with
the measure of success he attains,
though it is at best a success de'estime.
London News.