With the Judæans in the Palestine CampaignPatterson, J. H. (John Henry)
History
With the Judæans in the Palestine Campaign
Patterson, J. H. (John Henry)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Palestine; World War, 1914-1918 -- Participation, Jewish
When the Great War broke out he had secured two live ostrich chicks, new
to science, and these he had hoped to send alive to England. However,
when the pinch for food came there was none for the ostriches, so they
had to be killed; they were stuffed, and may now be seen at Lord
Rothschild's famous museum at Tring Park, Hertfordshire. This story of
the ostrich chicks was related to me by Mr. Aharoni while I was
celebrating with him the "Feast of Tabernacles," under the shade of
"boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick
trees, and willows of the brook," and we did greatly rejoice, for the
Feast was a goodly one, and the pottage of Gevereth Aharoni was such as
my soul loved.
About this time many military Race Meetings were organized in different
parts of Palestine, Syria, and Egypt, and officers were encouraged to
take part in them and get the men interested in the sport, so as to take
their thoughts away from the absorbing topic of demobilization.
On the 5th June a Race Meeting was held at Surafend, a few miles from
Bir Salem, and as we were all expected to support the programme, I
entered my charger Betty for one of the events.
Betty was a beautiful dark-brown creature, but somewhat skittish and
wayward, like many of her sex. I knew her little ways and how to humour
her to perfection, and she always gave me of her best. More than once
she managed to slip her fastenings in the horse lines, and used her
freedom to gallop off to my tent, where she would thrust her head
through the doorway; then, apparently satisfied, she would fly back to
her place in the lines.
She appeared at times to see something not visible to the human eye,
because, now and again, when cantering quickly along, for no apparent
reason she would suddenly bound aside as if the Devil himself had scared
her out of her wits.
The 3rd Lahore Division had at this time on its Staff an able and
energetic sportsman, Major Pott, of the Indian Cavalry; this officer
provided an excellent programme and ran the meeting without a hitch.
It was a lovely sunny afternoon, and thousands of people flocked to the
course, soldiers from the camps round about, civilians from Jerusalem,
Jaffa, and the surrounding colonies; the Arabs and Bedouins also sent a
very strong contingent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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