Talbot Mundy

“ If anything on earth looks more absurd than a ridden camel galloping away in the moonlight, with his neck stretched out in front of him and his four ungainly legs in the air all together, it is three more camels doing the same thing. ”

“ Have you ever seen twenty camels rolling all at once with their legs in the air, preparatory to making breakfast off dry thorns that you wouldn’t dare handle with gloves on? If so, you'll understand that they’re the perfect opposite of every other useful beast that lives.
But not all the camels were turned out. Grim chose Mujrim—Ali Baba’s eldest son—a black-bearded, forty-year-old giant—two of the younger men, Narayan Singh and me; and with the lady Ayisha’s beast in tow with the empty shibriyah set off directly the sun was a span high over the nearest dune. ”

“ You put your foot on the hollow of the camel’s neck and swing into the saddle as he raises his head again. Men used to the desert despise you if you have to make your mount kneel in order to get on his back, pretty much as horsemen of other lands despise the tenderfoot who can’t rope and saddle his own pony. There’s no excuse for that, of course; it stands to reason that lots of first-class men can’t mount a camel standing, never having done it; but according to desert lore, whoever has to make his camel kneel is a person of no account. ”

“ We sat our camels there for about three-quarters of an hour before half a dozen of Mahommed Abbas’ men appeared with Rafiki’s messenger riding the Bishareen between them. His face when they handed him over was the color of raw liver, and if ever a man was too scared to try to escape it was he. Ali Baba’s two sons got one on either side of him without making him feel any better, for he, too, was a Hebron man and knew them and their reputation. There was nothing improbable about their throwing in their lot with the greater robber Ali Higg. ”

“ It’s the most obvious thing in the world that a man with a silver tongue, as they call it, can swing and sway any crowd. If that man knows his own mind and has a plan worth spending effort on, he can trumpet cohesion out of tumult and win against men with twenty times his brains. ”

“ Grim counted noses and gave the order to be off. Two or three men mounted, and that brought all the kneeling camels to their feet. One of Ali Baba’s sons caught the beast assigned to me, brought him round to the gate, and began nakhing him to make him kneel again. But I know one or two things about Arabs and their ways of assessing humanity. Knowledge is for use.
“Do you mistake me for a cripple?” I asked, and instead of continuing to nakh in the camel language he pulled the head down. ”

“ They are cowards, who dare not take their sheikh’s part in a dispute.”
“Better wait until dawn, and then ride by their village and defy them.”
But the lady Ayisha had the most astonishing suggestion. She came out from under the curtains of the shibriyah and sat against her camel’s rump to face the circle of armed men and instruct them.
“Taib!” she said scornfully. “Let this Abbas Mahommed come and take me. I have a knife for his belly in any event. You go on to Ali Higg and say his wife is in the hands of that scum. ”

“ Then the sheikh’s men tried to load gifts on Grim—chickens, a live sheep, melons, vegetables and camel-milk in a gourd. Grim did not even deign to acknowledge them in person, but made a gesture to Narayan Singh, who promptly took charge of the prisoner himself and sent Ali Baba’s sons back for the presents. They had the good grace to find fault with everything, vowing that the sheep especially was only fit for vultures. ”

“ There is a school of fools who set themselves up to scoff at its facts, but every new discovery only confirms the old record; and here were we sauntering through the night on camels over hills where the fathers of history fought for the first beginnings of each man’s right to do his own thinking in his own way. ”

“ Camels are no man’s pets, and there is no explaining them. The fools will graze contentedly with shrapnel and high explosives bursting all about them, but go into a panic at the sight of a piece of paper in broad daylight. ”

“ Every one of those cloaked and muffled rascals had a notion of his own on the spur of the moment, and was eager to get it adopted.
“Allah!” said Ali Baba. “Let us fight, then, with Abbas Mahommed, and plunder his harem instead! It is simple. We come on his village. before dawn when those sons of Egyptian mothers [1] are asleep, We set fire to the thatch, and thereafter act as seems fit, slaying some and letting others escape!”
“Wallah! Let us ride straight through the village, set a light to it, and run,” suggested Mujrim. “There isn’t a woman in that place I would burden a camel with.” ”

“ Grim went on about his business, for changing loads in the dark is a job that needs attention, unless you choose to have a good beast lose heart before morning and lie down in the middle of the road. A camel in pain from a badly cinched girth will endure it without argument for just so long ”

“ The village Arabs are perfunctory about prayer, unless unctuous strangers are in sight, who might criticize. So, although we approached at prayer-time, it was hardly a minute after we rose in view over a low dune before a good number of men was on the wall gazing in our direction. ”

“ There was no fear of their wandering too far, for if the camel ever was wild, as many maintain that he never was, that was so long ago that the whole species has forgotten it, and he wouldn’t know what to do without his owner somewhere near. ”

“ If we journey too far south to avoid him, we lose at least a day and tire our camels out. A forced march now would mean that we must feed the camels corn, and we have none too much of it with us; whereas tomorrow the grazing will be passable, and farther on, where the grazing is poor, we shall need the corn. ”

“ However, with a final sneer or two anent the donor’s manners they bore sheep and all along behind us back to camp.
“Is it well?” called Ali Baba, watching on the ridge of a dune, and coming to life like a heron as soon as we drew near.
“All’s well,” said Grim.
“Father of cunning! What now?” the old man answered.
↑ To call any one an Egyptian is an Arab’s notion of a perfect insult.↑ A synonym for Allah.↑ What?↑ This is strange! ”