uld get up to
relieve them. The process of relief was going on during the few days
we were marching up.

Now to return to our part in the affair. Our first march was a short
one of some seven or eight miles to a bivouac a mile beyond
Ali-el-Muntar, the prominent height dominating Gaza at which we had
been looking the whole summer. We stayed here for a day, partly to
wait for the arrival of greatcoats, which would be so necessary in the
Judaean Highlands, and to get rid of our helmets, and partly to give
the supply people a chance. Most of us spent an hour or two examining
Ali-el-Muntar and its defences. It looked very much less knocked about
than one would have expected after the severe bombardments to which it
had been subjected, and we came to the conclusion that there had never
been very many troops actually holding it. The infantry had evidently
been in trenches well away from the hill, which appeared to have been
used entirely for observation purposes. It must have been a pretty
uncomfortable corner for an F.O.O., as the top used to appear to be
blown off about three times a day. Concealment of trenches had been
made very easy by the presence of numerous cactus hedges, and it is
doubtful whether our guns, except in the actual assault, had ever had
a really satisfactory target.

After this day of rest, 24th November, we marched just over twelve
miles to Mejdal. The weather was not too hot, and there was quite a
good beaten mud road, and we should have found it a fairly easy march
if it had not been for foot troubles. We had been more than six months
without having ever marched on a road--it had usually been soft
sand--and the sudden change to the flat hard surface of the baked mud
fired the men's feet at once. When we arrived in camp at Mejdal we had
a foot parade, and found that there were over a hundred cases of
blisters and dressings for the medical officer and his satellites.
This Mejdal was quite a considerable village, and as we marched in we
met the most dignified specimens of native we had yet seen. Mounted on
donkeys and wearing the flowing robes of the Old Testament, they
really did remind one of the patriarchs in our stained glass windows.
All the brilliant colours--purple, crimson, and orange--were
represented, and many of them had the regulation beard. There were
also numbers of the usual class selling oranges and, oddly enough,
also cigarettes.

Next morning we were again on the road and not feelin