Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/208

which we had been listening. The difference between what may be called the camel of commerce and this humped charger was immense, astonishing, to any one who has not seen it almost incredible. It was the difference between a slouching, morose, and ragged street loafer and the same man set up and smartened into the well-drilled soldier of a crack regiment. The camel of commerce, as we most of us know him, is a coarse-haired, untidy brute, knock-kneed and awkward-gaited, with a sullen, if not vindictive, expression of countenance, and a coat all tags and tufts. But these were clean-limbed and comely creatures, with skins that shone like satin in the evening sun. They carried their heads as if they were proud of them, and planted their feet with neatness and precision, keeping step as perfectly as the chargers of a troop of cavalry. Merely to see them walk was enough to dispel all doubts as to their ability to ourstrip any animal that a Dervish is likely to be