January 5, 1939

Before leaving Biskra, we all wandered around that date market which was now in full swing. Natives jostled each other in the crowded street. Everyone was trying to sell us something and I don’t know how many little knives and daggers we bought from one little man.

Caravans of camels with huge wool slacks of dates were being unloaded and in one caravan a tiny baby camel was being pushed along. He was the most adorable soft fuzzy gray long-legged creature I ever saw and all of us followed him out of town and had our pictures taken with him (after we had paid the Arab) and watched him get “goodies” from his mama. I don’t know of any funnier looking animal than camel. I laugh every time I see one.

They have the silliest expressions. With their noses in the air they condescend to heartily looked down on you from under the longest eyelashes imaginable. They nonchalantly chew their cud with a chew on one side and then a chew on the other side, and it’s a big swing from side to side. The way the natives load the poor beasts down is a crime and a shame. It takes two men a hard struggle to put one bag of dates on a camel, but the poor camel has to carry two. Later on we heard a camel noisily refusing to budge or carry his load. He just lay down by the road. The natives took the bags off and then put them back on and the camel had to go on.

Out by some sand dunes we had great sport riding camels. I was never aware of the fact that camels are so noisy. The poor beast that was made to kneel in order for me to hop on was most thorough in grumbling and showing his disapproval of carrying my deadweight around. It was finally persuaded to let me sit on a most comfortable cushion-like saddle and the camels started to rise. His posterior gets up first, and I was tipped in such a position I thought surely I would fall on the poor animal’s neck. However, I managed to stick on and we were away. The camels walk swings his hump which swings the rider round and round and up and down all at the same time, and while many people get camel sick from the motion, our ride was short and so hilarious that we felt no qualms. Mr. Abry got smart and told the man to make the camels run, and we bounced around in a terrific rate, but it was loads of fun. Our dinner was of nothing but describe dates, which are heavenly fruits of sweetness and stickiness. After the first 50 I was a little tired of them. All afternoon in the desolate desert region from Biskra to Bou Saada, we passed hundreds of camels in caravans and each camel had the same silly haughty expression for us. We had tea in Bou Saada with an Arab gentleman who spoke English, and on leaving were accosted by several shepherds with fox pelts. Since they were inexpensive, Aunt Inez snapped them up. After shaking hands with much of the native population, we were off for Algiers. It was soon dark and we drove and drove up and down around the Atlas Mountains and at last about 11 PM after no dinner we arrived at Algiers. Algiers was expecting Daladier the next morning and several hotels which we tried could not accommodate us. We finally secured rooms on the seventh floor of an inexpensive hotel and all of us piled into bed without a thought of dinner.