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[Page 21]
was carried through when I tell you that the casualties were infinitesimal. A great incentive was the desire to capture as many Turks as possible & see what there was in Beersheba in the way of refreshment & any other trifle to be had for the taking. I do not say loot. It was about this time that the horses achieved a record for powers of endurance – going without water for about fifty hours. This record was beaten later on in the campaign.
From now onwards, the country promises more & more the number of gardens increases, attractive Arab villages surmount the knolls, the roofs of the mud houses frequently shewing a green crop of barley – the said Arab or Bedouin villages are attractive enough from the pictorial point of view, from the outside, but more intimate acquaintance leaves a bad smell in the nostrils & necessitates a liberal use of flea powder. Fortunately the Bedouin parasite has homing instincts & will, if given fair play abandon the succulent white man for to return to the bronzed Bedouin, his first love. A passing hand shake to the Jewish colonies, about near which we camped about eight miles from Jaffa. My head still buzzes at the memory of the excellent but young wine which we there imbibed in large quantities. Without being political, I think that these examples of the recrudescence of the Jewish race in Palestine are making a valiant attempt to subdue their natural instinct for trading & finance merely & to pursue