A Few Hints to Travellers in The East, especially The Desert

Food. – Take good store of captains, or other biscuits, for the Desert especially. Arab bread is bad, and that the traveller starts with soon gets hard. Compressed soup, with plenty of vegetables in it, is very acceptable; so is Irish stew in tins. A cup of cocoa early in the morning is a good thing. It is made much more readily than coffee. That in powder, ready sweetened, etc., is best, as only some hot water is needed. The dawn, when the tents are being struck, is often very cold in the Desert. A spirit-lamp, which enables the traveller to make a cup of hot cocoa for himself while the “camp” is in an early uproar, is very handy. When the tents are pitched for the night the cook should always be ready with tea some time before supper. Condensed milk should be taken. The Arabs sometimes come across a Bedouin encampment which may profess to furnish milk, probably sour. Let the thirsty traveller be cautious when he is offered a bowl of buttermilk, and taste it first. Camel’s milk, too, generally disagrees with Europeans. Water, of course, has to be carried long distances. It is good at Sinai. Some recommend claret for Desert drinking. A small keg of good whisky for a glass of toddy before turning in after a hard day’s march is desirable, especially as the Desert traveller may chance on some nights of cold rain. We had very little “spirit” with us, and wished we had. brought more. Good bitter beer is got at Suez, and a case of it might well be put on a camel. Each traveller should have a small skin of water hung to his camel; the surface of the skin remains moist, and the evaporation keeps the water cool. A skin is better than a tin, but an ordinary workman’s quart bottle of block-tin is very useful for cold tea, etc. See that the corks are of the best, and have a few to spare. The dragoman will be sure to take live fowls and pigeons. He is certain also to provide plenty of jam, etc., which the Arab thinks the European delights in, but preserved soup, Irish stew, and biscuits should be seen to. Too much reliance is apt to be placed on maccaroni, which the Eastern does not always know how to dress. It is more easily carried than cooked. Care should, moreover, be taken that all the “eggs” are not carried in the same basket, that the camp-stools provided are strong, and that the knives cut. Have a private store of cocoa, biscuits, sugar, spirits, etc.

Presents – Strong Tobacco. – The Bedouin smoke poor stuff, and are grateful for something they can taste – never mind how strong it is. They will probably mix it with their own. String. – We found them honest, but really good English string tempts them. Take a store of the best string, such as water-cord, and give them some hanks. Also shilling knives would be much prized, and common burning-glasses. A few presents such as I have mentioned take very little room, but are immensely valued. I doubt if the Bedouin care for mere toys.

Clothes. – Easy-fitting stout brown or grey serge is best, with plenty of pockets that button. A thin white overall might be useful in the sun. For the head an Indian helmet with puggery, and a fez or cap to wear at odd times and in the evening. Avoid lace boots, but wear those that come up to the knee and keep out sand. Take a heavy ulster and two or three railway rugs, which are useful on camels. But see first that the camel saddle is good, and especially that it has a large leather pillow before its high pommel, on which to rest the leg when riding, as an Eastern does. But certainly take stirrups, and see that the leathers are strong. A hippopotamus whip, to be got in Cairo, should be taken; also a hand-bag and haversack, which may be hung from the pommel of the camel’s saddle. Take a very strong white umbrella. Let the luggage, moreover, be very strong. Bedouin are rough. They fight for favourite packages which are supposed to be lightest. I have seen two or four of them playing at “the tug-of-war” with a carpet-bag of mine for five minutes together. Take some cord and string for your own use, and a few bags or tins “to put things in,” even if you be not a collector. Carry a pocket-knife with a “catch,” you may have to carve with it, and will want, moreover, a longish blade. Pistols are carried-loaded. If I went again I think 1 should take a repeating rifle. Blue spectacles are very useful, for the glare is sometimes great.

When riding on horseback have a spur for the left heel; sometimes you find things tied on behind the saddle which might catch a right spur in mounting or dismounting. But have a spur, anyhow, for a horse; they are not used with camels. Learn the trick of making a camel kneel, if you can. It involves a peculiar sound and touch. Certainly look out for its use on the part of your camel leader, at whose hint the beast plumps down suddenly.
Avoid iron in the framework of luggage, as also iron pins, buttons, etc.,
remembering that luggage is often pitched down on the stone from the camel’s back.

Take store of large stout “carpet” pins and those which are known as “nursery”; they are a sort of pin brooches, and may be very useful in pinning from inside the flap of the tent to the “wall” of the tent on a blowing night. I had a parcel of these with me, and found them thus very useful indeed. Of course they must be removed before the Arabs come to take the tent down in the morning, but while in use they may prevent the first encroachment of a wind that might eventually lift the tent bodily up.

From Past and Present in The East
by the Rev. Harry Jones, 1880