Dr. Felkin explained to them that the camel was a most patient and docile animal on which they would have to make the rest of their journey to Egypt and that there was no cause for fear…he was assisted into the saddle and, having safely got through the operation of rising, proceeded to make a speech on its pleasures.
-Fire and Sword in the Sudan, Rudolph von Slatin, Prisoner of the Mahdi
Robert Felkin of the Church Mission Society was travelling from Sudan to Cairo and needed a camel but first a lesson in riding it. Slatin didn’t mention what Felkin’s Kababish trail boss said after assisting him into the saddle, but no doubt he thought it premature to expound on its pleasures so quickly. On our first day we too were pleased, after which KhairAllah might have advised us to be careful when saying the Arabic word for Saddle, Saraj, because its homophone Sarraaj means Liar.