4 INTRODUCTION 



History has always described flies as a pest ever since 

 the plagues of Egypt, mentioned in chapter viii. of the 

 book of Exodus. History repeated itself during the year 

 1909 at Cairo, when another plague of flies occurred 

 again after three thousand years. But on this occasion 

 it was followed by the death of the newly born, not 

 merely the jirst-born as in the biblical story ; and it 

 affected Jews and Gentiles alike. This recurrence will 

 be more fully described in a later chapter. In many 

 of the drawings engraved on the monuments of ancient 

 Egypt the slaves are shown holding palm-leaves, which 

 were used as fans and fly-flappers ; so that the insects 

 must have been a common pest quite apart from 

 moments of divine anger. Both the Jewish Law as 

 drawn up by Moses, and the Mohammedan Law as 

 enunciated in the Koran, seem to aim at sanitary regu- 

 lations which, if they had been carried out in their 

 entirety, would have reduced flies and have prevented 

 fly-borne diseases ; for fly-reduction is merely a question 

 of efficient sanitation. The Roman gentry were much 

 bothered by flies ; as is now the case in the East, the 

 flies were very troublesome to the ancient aristocracy of 

 the Eternal City during the afternoon siesta a midday 

 rest as much in vogue now in hot climates as then 

 in Italy. Paulus Silentarius in Anthologia Palatina, 

 recommends the use of a bed-curtain (conopeuvi, 

 canopy) as a substitute for the slaves' fly-flappers. Per- 

 haps he found his slaves as lazy as the modern Indian 

 punkah-wallah is to-day ; or perhaps he found that his 

 slaves enjoyed their hot- weather siestas as much as he 

 did. Anyhow, his suggestion was a good one, and the 

 net or curtain replaced the fly-flapper until the intro- 

 duction of the electric fan, which now effectually keeps 

 flies off sleepers' faces in hot climates. In the various 



