THE FIRST RIDE ON A CAMEL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1308, 26 February 1885, Page 3

THE FIRST RIDE ON A CAMEL.

The Daily Telegraph's Dcmgola correspondent writes :—" A few days ago I had my first ride on a camel, and I thought it would have been my last. It was to go to our camp that I got crosslegged upon an Arab saddle, insecurely fastened by strings upon the back of a great lumbering, humpbacked brute. I had no sooner attempted to take my place on the saddle than the camel, which was lying prone, into which position he had been forced, began grunting like ari old village pump violently worked. At the same time he turned his prehensile lips aside, grinned like a bulldog, and showed a grinning row of teeth, which he sought to close upon me. I got aboard without accident, and had not long to wait for a rise. The first movement, as he lifted his forelegs, nearly sent me over backwards ; the next, as he straightened his hind legs,.still more nearly tipped me over hie head. I had been warned to hold tight, but it was only the clutch of desperation that saved nn\ Afier several iunges and plunges, the brute got fairly on his legs. The reins con-

aisted of a rope round his neck for steering, ani a string fastened to a ring thrust in his nostrils, to pull up his head and stop him when going too fast. My camel began to move forward, and thereupon I oscillated and see-sawed as if seized with sea-sicknes» or cramp in the stomach, Involuntary as the movement was, an hour of it would, I am sure, have made as abject a victim of me as the worst sufferer on a Channel passage. A heartless friend was in front of me on another camel, which he set trotting. Instantly I became as helpless as a child, for my camel disregarded the strain on his nostrils, and my fervent ejaculations, My profane Arabic vocabulary was too limited to have the slightest effect, I swayed to and fro, was bumped up and down, until I was almost shaken to pieces. It would have been a positive relief could I have found myself at rest on the ground, but tho motion was so incessant I had no time to make up my mind what course to adopt. It ended, as even experiences of the worst kind must do, and I found myself still on the camel's back. Not so my humorous friend, who, to my great comfort, performed a double somersault, and did not succeed iu landing quite on his feet. I was told I should become accustomed to camek'iding, and might even get to like it. But my faith is not great enough for that.