NORTHERN JAFURA 29

dry, staccato style, and never tired of inflicting himself on
some member of the party. His fund of conversation was
inexhaustible, and he showed a curious resentment at any
attempt on my part to draw on the funds of the others.

Both Zayid and 'Ali rode in the fashion of Oman, now
squatting and now kneeling on the neat, light saddle, known
as Haulani and set well back towards the camel's rump with
only the small wooden vices of the frame gripping the hump
fore and aft. Their riding was entirely by balance, and it
seemed to me that the southern saddle was a great improve-
ment on the ponderous structure of Najd. It was lighter and
more compact, but it reduced the storage capacity of the
saddle-bags, \Yhich in Oman are made smaller to fit across the
narrow rump, providing a seat for the rider actually on and
between the flaps. The rifle is fitted at the trail under a bag
instead of being slung, as in Najd, from the rear pole of the
saddle-frame. For my purposes the capacious Najdi saddle-
bags were more useful, but at this stage I was suffering
agonies from the rough paces and sluggish gait of Al Bahran-
iya. My joints ached again and I was as stiff as could be.
Yet the beast had been especially selected for my riding by
Ibn Jiluwi himself, an expert in all that pertained to camel-
mastery. The trouble was that the animal had been too
long at the pastures, and had grown a hump which looked
better than it felt. In other hands she would probably have
performed very differently, and the opinion gradually
matured among my companions that I should be transferred,
at any rate temporarily, to another animal. It was not,
however, till the fifth day of the march that I exchanged
mounts with Sa'dan with astonishingly satisfactory results
due, perhaps, in part to the fact that my stiffness had then
worn off—quite suddenly as it generally does. Later, when I
resumed riding Al Bahraniya, I experienced no further dis-
comfort though her walk was never anything but sluggish
and it was always irksome egging her on. Only once after-
wards did I exchange her for another animal for a few hours
when we found it necessary to speed up our progress, while
for the final desert crossing Zayid took her and I rode Na'riya,
the great white brute now forging ahead under 'Ali Jahman.