History more often records the brilliant successes and spectacular defeats of contending forces than the effect of war on the common people.

In the desert the detachment of life from all normal intercourse imparts a sense of gravity to every rencontre, and each touch with human beings is fraught with a significance lacking in the too hurried intercourse of ordinary everyday life. On the desert track, there is no such thing as a casual meeting.

[On the camel:] Its weak point is its morale, and it is here that so much depends on its human master. Discouragement is fatal ... it loses heart, sinks by the wayside and dies.