Idhaa inkasar al-jamal hammal hamal himaar. If thy camel breaks down, put on an ass-load.
-Burckhardt’s Arabic Proverbs
I rode a white camel for the first 20 days, then I left the dabouka for a day and a night to enter Dongola to get my passport exit stamp. When I met up again with the herd I was told my white camel had broken down and died, and from then onwards I would ride a chestnut gelding, the cameloid eqivalent of an ox, a strong, slow, and lumbering beast. So what therefore does Burckhardt’s proverb say about me? My khasi certainly did not haul his ass for the next twenty days to Egypt, but he sure did mine, a khawaja-load.