Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/209

 bestriding. And as for drill and discipline, we soon have an opportunity of judging of their efficiency in those respects when we follow our guide to the camping-ground and see scores of these usually unmanageable animals kneeling down in long rows at the word of command before the shallow trenches in which the men have placed for them their evening meal.

"We keep a detachment of the Camel Corps in a condition to take the field, you might almost say, at a moment's notice," another officer told us. "Rations for the men, forage for the beasts, arms and ammunition—everything in constant readiness. In less than half an hour after the order was given they would be on the march."

We looked along the lines of crouching and feeding camels, with their sturdy, sable Soudanese riders standing motionless behind them—the picture of organised efficiency—and we could well understand the present inclination of the Dervishes to give