nd not the least difficult part of the
business was to make the inclines safe and convenient for all traffic.

All this, it should be stated, was not the leisurely work of weeks or even
days; the main part of it had to be completed in twenty-four hours, to
supply the thousands of thirsty horses waiting to be watered.

Meanwhile at railhead transport was rapidly arranged to carry the water,
most of which had already been brought a hundred and thirty miles on the
train, to the nullah.

Camels only were used, in such numbers that from Belah to Khan Yunus the
country was like a vast patch-work quilt of greys and blacks and browns. It
seemed as if all the camels in the world were assembled here; sturdy little
black Algerians; white long-legged beasts from the Soudan; tough grey
"belody" camels from the Delta; tall, wayward Somalis; massive,
heavy-limbed Maghrabis--magnificent creatures; a sprinkling of
russet-brown Indian camels; and, lest the female element be neglected, a
company of flighty "nitties," very full of their own importance. The native
drivers were of as many shades as the camels they led, from the pale brown
of the town-bred Egyptian to the coal-black Nubian or Donglawi. Twenty-five
thousand camels carrying water! The first relays were filing stolidly into
the nullah in the early hours of the morning after the battle, as though
their business were the most ordinary thing in the world!

They entered the nullah by one of the hastily constructed roads and
"barracked" in a long row in front of the big tanks. Then the two
twelve-and-a-half-or fifteen-gallon fanatis carried by each camel were
unloaded and their precious contents poured into the tanks, after which the
empty fanatis were reloaded on to the saddles and the camels passed out of
the nullah by another road, and returned to Belah or Khan Yunus for another
supply. There was no confusion and hardly any noise but the grunting and
snarling of the camels as they "barracked" and got up again, the whole
process of unloading and reloading being like a piece of well-oiled
machinery. Indeed, so well was the work done that troops coming in to water
their horses scarcely noticed it.

Day and night the two long columns--the one with full, the other with empty
fanatis--passed in and out of the nullah; and for twelve miles there was no
break in the slow-moving chain.

By noon on the day following the battle two thousand horses at a time were
able to water comfortably