Mss Eur F140/234/5

Genre/Subject Matter

These two small watercolour drawings depict scenes taken from life at the Settlement of Aden in 1871. Both drawings focus on Arabs’ use of camels as a form of transport.

In the left-hand drawing, four veiled women perch alongside one another atop a litter held in place on the back of a light-haired camel. All four women are obscured in blue robes; the woman on the right has an uncovered face, while only the eyes of the other three women are visible.

A tall, slender man wearing only a blue loincloth and turban leads the camel by a tether attached to a harness about its muzzle. He holds what appears to be a walking stick or cane in his right hand.

The right-hand image shows an Arab man standing balanced on the neck of a dark-haired camel. He is wearing a turban and loincloth, which is held together by a belt that also holds a janbiya in place. Both the material of the turban and loincloth are blue with red detailing and have been rendered very delicately in order to illustrate this. The man wears an object at his side, held there by a strap that crosses his torso. He whirls a whip above his head. Behind him, balanced on the camel’s saddle is a long-barrelled rifle; it has been decorated in black and white concentric stripes.

Both drawings are stylistically in keeping with other sketches of ‘natives’ in this volume and in the related files Mss Eur F140/232 and Mss Eur F140/233, which, together with this volume, complete the trio of journals created by Jeffrey C. Amherst.

Inscriptions

Lower left corner: ‘Aden – Oct 22nd /71’

Temporal Context

The drawing was made during the period Amherst was based at Aden, between 30 November 1870 and 1871/1872. It is likely to have been sketched from life either at or near the Isthmus Position, where two companies of British and two companies of Native Infantry were regularly based, according to an 1877 publication (F. M. Hunter, An Account of the British Settlement at Aden, (London: Trübner & Co., 1877)) and where Amherst was attending a musketry course between 18–28 October 1871. Amherst moved about frequently between Crater, Isthmus, Ras Marshag and elsewhere during his time at Aden.