EIGHT DAYS ON CAMEL BACK.

WHAT a bother, dust and smother,
What a dark and greasy band,
Swearing, lying, boxes tying

Ere we start o'er Egypt's sand!
Camels roaring, beggars boring,
Ugly women, black and brown,
Arabs screaming and blaspheming,
Half the luggage upside down!
See the perspiration falling

Down each dark Egyptian's brow:
Every one on Allah calling,

Load the camels Lord knows how.
There the Sheik, with air commanding,
Stalks about from place to place;
Here his voice is heard demanding

Backsheesh," with an easy grace:

"Backsheesh! hang you, here's your Backsheesh! "Plague upon you, hold your din !"

And the Koorbág, with a sure lash,

Falls on his devoted skin.

Now we're off for Wade Halfeh,
Boiling, toiling in the sun,
Jolting, pushing, bumping, thumping,
Long before the day's begun;
Quaking, shaking, limbs all aching,
Backbones breaking, wind and dust,
Smoking, sweating, fuming, fretting,
Water that would pigs disgust.
Camels hobbling, Arabs squabbling,
Laughing, chaffing, whilst around
Bones are bleaching, vultures screeching
With a most unpleasant sound.

Such are the verses which I, a second Byron, composed, seated on the ruins of a fallen mud house, at Korusko, having, about ten hours previously, safely passed through the Scylla and Charybdis of the first cataract of the Nile.

In the midst of all this turmoil and bustle, so poetically described above, the Sheik of the village is announced coming to pay a visit to the "Hawagee," as travellers, making a tour up the Nile, are universally styled. He is a man of a stern and imposing bronze countenance, pleasingly relieved with grey beard and whiskers. The Arabs are immediately turned out of the cabin, much to the relief of our little Scotch terrier, Judy, who has been growling at them ferociously, whilst they have been packing up; and the Sheik, after kissing our Dragoman affectionately, is turned in, and proceeds to seat himself cross-legged on the sofa.

We present him with a pipe, a cup of coffee, and a saucerful of raspberry jam. The Sheik commences with a spoonful of raspberry jam, then a pull at the pipe, and then a sip at the coffee. We enquire (through our Dragoman) after the state of his health. The Sheik presses both hands very tightly on his heart, and turns up his eyes till nothing but the whites are visible. Alarmed at these symptoms, we ask whether he has the heart complaint. No. The Sheik is only overpowered by this touching proof of our regard for him. Rather abashed by our ignorance of oriental customs, we proceed to the more important point of camels. The Sheik looks grave, and swallows a large spoonful of raspberry jam. The Dragoman then begins an eloquent harangue in a pretty loud tone, and with much gesticulation, which increases to such a fearful pitch, that we are fain to squeeze ourselves into the remotest corners of our cabin, to avoid being knocked into the middle of next week. It seems, however, to have the happy effect of soothing the Sheik; for his features relax, and, at the close of the harangue, he opens his lips for the first and only time, and says, "The Hawagee shall have camels." He claps his hands thrice, and we, having been previously getting up the Arabian Nights, almost expect to see a troop of Afrects" enter; but our fears are soon dispelled, for nothing appears but a dirty negro, who answers to the name of "Mausoon," and to whom the Sheik gives some commands in a guttural tone of voice, to the effect that all the camels in Korusko shall be brought down the following morning for our inspection; and, our minds being thus relieved, we present the Sheik with a canister of "soi-disant" English gun-powder; and he, with many "salaams" and pantomimes expressive of gratitude, swallows the remainder of the raspberry jam at one mouthful, and stalks magnificently away. . . . . Such is the extract from our well-thumbed and tobacco-redolent diary, which we scrupulously kept during our peregrinations in Upper Egypt.

The following morning, C. my travelling companion, and myself were awakened by the most dreadful noise that can possibly be imagined. It appeared to proceed from the shore, and sounded something between the roaring of a wild beast and the gobbling of a

turkey. We immediately called our "fidus Acates," Harsan, and demanded the reason of these unearthly bellowings. He informed us quietly that it was only the camels. We rushed on shore, and there sure enough were four and twenty camels, kneeling on the ground, with one or two "Bishanee" Arabs standing amongst them, all uttering the most diabolical noises that ever struck the tympanum of mortal ear. We requested that they might be removed further away whilst we breakfasted; but, on being ordered to rise, they roared with such redoubled vehemence, that we were obliged to stop our ears, and retire once more into the obscurity of our cabins.

I may as well observe here, that camels, which are generally believed to be the most amiable and docile animal in creation, are in reality exactly the contrary. Patient and long-suffering they certainly are, as we had occasion to experience; but, curious as it may seem, they have the most invincible repugnance to do whatever they are wanted. If they are required to lie down, they roar in the most piteous manner; if they are ordered to get up, they do exactly the same. In loading and unloading them, they frequently turn their long necks round and do their best to bite the men who are employed about them. I have even known camels that cannot bear being approached, and if you come within five yards of them, they will roar as if they were being submitted to the most exquisite torture. However, there is, unfortunately, nothing perfect in this world; so we will leave the faults of the camels alone, and proceed with our narrative.

As soon as we had finished breakfast, we had a general inspection of the camels. We selected thirteen of the stoutest-nine being for the baggage, and four for our riding; viz. for C., the cook, the Dragoman, and myself. We also took a couple of our boat's crew with us, to assist in pitching the tents at night, and various other little matters. We mounted the different camels before fixing upon the ones we intended riding, in order to choose the smoothest paced. This being the first time I had mounted a camel, I nearly tumbled backwards over his tail as he was getting up, and then was pitched with considerable violence in the other direction, my nose thereby coming in contact with the pummel of the saddle, and causing me the most excruciating agony. I vented my indignation by thumping him on the ribs, which sounded like an empty water cask, when, to my intense disgust, the brute uttered a roar like all the bulls of Bashan, and set off at a shambling trot, shaking me till I thought my head was coming off my shoulders. I lugged at the string that was fastened round his nose till I was black in the face, and at length, after spinning round like a teetotum for a few minutes, he plumped down with a jerk which fairly upset me, and I rolled on the ground, listening, in no very placable mood, to

K

the horrible laughter of the unfeeling C. who had witnessed my "debut" on Camel Back with the keenest enjoyment. However, after feeling myself all over, and finding my legs and arms in their proper places, I laughed at the adventure, and we proceeded to load the camels, under the direction of the Bisharee Arabs.

Fine looking fellows are the Bisharees, thick and bushy are the heads of hair they possess, and redolent is the butter of camel's milk with which they anoint them. Their clothing consisted of a piece of sackcloth, with a hole cut in it, through which they put their heads. This reached down to their knees, and after that, some of the more extravagant among them sported a pair of sandals. In this light and fashionable costume, they walked eight days across a burning desert, starting before sunrise, and not stopping till sunset.

At length the moment for starting arrived; every thing left behind was safe under lock and key; the boat's crew had been regaled with a sheep, of which nothing remained but the hoofs and the skin. Judy had been consigned to the care of the Reis, with solemn injunctions not to eat her, and threats of the most sauguinary nature if she was not well taken care of; our camels were loaded, and nothing remained but to mount and be off.

C. and I had our mattresses strapped on the saddles; for they (the saddles) are composed of two or three pieces of wood joined together and stuffed with a little hay, and consequently do not form the most comfortable seats in the world. Hassan, the Dragoman, who had some indescribable piece of padding which he called his bed, followed our example; and the Cook, seeing this, seized the two pillows on which our heads were to repose in the evening, for his sole use and benefit, and placed them on his camel with the triumphant air of a man who has done a remarkably praiseworthy action.

Ibrahim (one of our crew who was to follow us), and his companion, whose name I have never been able to ascertain, but who was nicknamed "the Camel," on account, I believe, of his bearing a strong resemblance to one of those noble animals, were perched contentedly, one on the top of a hamper of pale ale, and the other on the sharp edge of a wooden box containing the kitchen utensils. They both, however, seemed to feel very comfortable, and surveyed the scene with a philosophy and stoicism peculiarly appertaining to Arabs.

Our caravan was put in motion at three o'clock in the afternoon; and, after an affecting interview with our crew, who insisted upon kissing our hands with their greasy mouths, to our great dissatisfaction, we entered a narrow defile of black granite rocks, and bade adieu, not without some regret, to the comforts of our Nile boat.

We had not gone far when we were met by a caravan, just

coming into Korusko, laden heavily with elephants' teeth, from the distant" forest of elephants," and with the precious gum Arabic from the island of Sennar. Glad enough they seemed to be to behold at length, after an eight or nine days' journey, with only one well in their path, and that brackish, the blue waters of the Nile, and the green foliage on its banks. As we passed them, we exchanged the usual "salaam aleikoum"-which, being interpreted, meaneth peace be with you,--and continued our route. I was perfectly astonished to perceive the enormous quantity of bones of cows and camels which strewed this desert; every twenty yards, we came upon a heap of bleaching bones, and occasionally the carcase of some animal recently dead, on which the vultures were feeding. If this meat was not too high, our Bisharees" would run and cut slices out of it, which they ate raw for supper; and I confess my opinion of the civilization of Upper Egypt was not raised by this exhibition of their gastronomic powers; but, as the French say, "Chacun a son goût.

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By this time, having been on the move about three hours, the sun had nearly set, and I asked our guide if we were not going to stop. He replied, in a decisive manner, that we should stop in about four hours. This perfectly horrified me; for being, as I have before said, a novice on camel back, every bone in my body was aching with the atrocious motion. The usual way to sit on a camel is very much the same way as a lady sits on horseback, the saddle fore and aft having two pieces of wood sticking up, which answer the purpose of pommels. The motion of the animal is such, that in a walk, with every step he takes, you are obliged to make a polite bow to some imaginary person in an exact line with your camel's head; and as you have to perform this salutation on an average of at least fifty times in a minute, it becomes, after a time, rather annoying. As for his trot, Mr. Albert Smith has described it in the following manner : "Take a music stool, screw it up as high as it will go, set it on the seat of a cart without springs, and drive this cart at a smart pace transversely across a ploughed field, and you will then form no idea of the roughness of a camel's trot." I must say that I perfectly agree with him in this matter; and although we did not trot that day, by the time we had arrived at our halting place for the night, I felt very much in the state that I imagine people to have felt in days of yore after having been put on the rack, and also most dreadfully tired. Tomkins asked me, when I got off my camel, how I felt. I replied that I never felt fresher in my life; the truth of which I proved by tumbling off my camp-stool in the middle of dinner, on to my bed, which luckily lay behind me, fast asleep.

This sort of fatigue, however, wears off in a very short time, and after the first two days I became tolerably resigned to my fate.