"LIFE AT MUSLIMIE.

"Railway communication not being completed, and roads rendered
unfit by heavy rains, delayed the passage of canteen stores, and
the rations had perforce to consist chiefly of mutton caught,
killed and eaten the same day. Shall we ever forget the taste of
it? Of course, we _did_ get goat sometimes as a variation. Xmas Day
was on the horizon and no hope of any puddings, but most units were
able to produce some kind of Xmas dinner, and a pudding concocted
from local ingredients. Followed special trains to the 'Palmtrees'
Concert Party in Aleppo, and a fox hunt on New Year's Day. Whist
drives and 'sing-songs' helped to break the deadly monotony of the
long winter evenings, and during the day there was plenty to occupy
one; roads to make in the mud, stones to be carted, buildings and
shelters erected, and more than all, the attempt to get a little of
the dirt off one's animal, and a little more flesh on his bones.
After the 130 degrees or so of heat (in the shade) in the Jordan
Valley, the cold in Syria, during the winter, seemed intense, and
ice had frequently to be broken before the morning wash. The snow
on the Taurus Mountains was not reassuring either, and firewood and
coal became almost unobtainable.

[Illustration]

"SEEING THE NEW YEAR IN.

"The only beverages obtainable at this time were native wines and
army rum, and as the former consisted chiefly of sweet Alicante,
methylated cognac and Arak, one became quite a connoisseur of the
latter and the different methods of making rum punch.

"One Quartermaster-Sergeant in particular made quite a reputation
for himself as a punch mixer, and I know that among his favourite
ingredients were oranges, lemons, figs, condensed milk, cloves,
nutmeg, pepper, ginger, boiling water.

"New Year's Eve saw (and heard) an officers' dinner, and all those
from far and near flocked to a small building near the station, and
under the able Presidency of popular Lieut.-Col. Wigan, of the
Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, and the direction of a Yorkshire vet.
and a Captain of the Deccan Horse, the Old Year (and in some cases
two Old Years) was seen out amid a score of toasts, the fumes of
aromatic punch, and the strain of a buckshee piano. Personally, I
crossed eight sets of Bagdad railwa