﻿IO SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 59 



ture. 1 On the irrigated fields the natives raise a variety of barley, 

 rice, and some wheat, with a little sorghum and a few vegetables. 

 The land is generally poor and, as at Ball's visit, over a decade ago, 

 what is raised, excepting the dates, barely suffices for the home con- 

 sumption. A quantity of the dates is exported to the Valley. 



The climate is that of the Libyan desert in general, subtropical, 

 except that the air, due to local evaporation, is less dry. Rain is 

 very rare. The predominating winds are from the north, although 

 during a part of the summer season sultry winds blow from the 

 south. Sand storms are frequent at certain times of the year and 

 are very troublesome. 



The wells in the condition in which they are kept are by no means 

 an unmitigated blessing. They are all open and many form pools, 

 overflows, and marshy spots, which are instrumental in the genera- 

 tion of great numbers of mosquitoes of several varieties, including 

 that which disseminates malaria. 



The Oasis is also infested, especially in the spring and the summer 

 months, with great numbers of small and ordinary-sized flies, which 

 possess the annoying and dangerous instinct of trying to feed on the 

 moisture or discharges of the eyes, nose, and mouth. They are the 

 transmitters of trachoma and doubtless of other pathological condi- 

 tions. Curiously they are decidedly more numerous and troublesome 

 outside than inside the villages. In April of each year there appears 

 at the watered places, in addition to the common varieties, a larger 

 fly, which bites camels, inoculating them with a disease that often has 

 a fatal result. Occasionally this fly also bites men, but in this case the 

 bite is not dangerous. The Oasis harbors also several poisonous 

 reptiles." 



The Oasis natives live, as mentioned above, principally in four 

 villages (Kharga, Gennah, Boulac, and Beris), though there are six 

 other smaller settlements. These villages are of considerable inter- 

 est from the standpoint of primitive architecture. By far the largest 

 and most populous is Kharga, which is inhabited by about one-half 

 of the total population of the Oasis, and deserves a brief special 

 description (plates 1-3). 



1 The number of taxable palm trees in 1897, according to Ball (1. c. p. 46), 

 was rather less than eight to each head of population, while the total taxed 

 water supply per person amounted to about 15 cubic meters per day. These 

 conditions have changed but little, if any, since then. The cultivated area 

 of land was, in 1907, less than 19 square kilometers, or a little over half an 

 acre to a person, out of the total oasis area of considerably over 3,000 square 

 kilometers. 



2 Further details are given under notes on pathology. 



