flOO TRAVELS IN UPPER 



mostpalient spirit. They like to fasten themselves 

 in preference on the corners of the eye, and on the 

 edge of the eyelid, tender parts towards which 

 a gentle moisture attracts them. I have observed 

 a species, or rather a variety of flies, streaked with 

 gray and dark brown, and resembling the common 

 fly, only much smaller. Their habits also differ, 

 for I did not perceive that they were often on the 

 wing, nor that they incommoded men or animals. 

 They were almost constantly found in houses, fast- 

 ened on the walls, and, from preference, on the 

 whitest. 



The flies are not the only troublesome insects ; 

 their houses are filled with a vast quantity of bugs, 

 whose bites are cruelly painful. Notwithstanding 

 this, the Egyptians, covered over with these vile 

 insects, sleep profoundly; their skin, hard and thick, 

 renders them impenetrable, whilst the European 

 undergoes, in the same places, a real punishmxnt. 

 The bite of these bugs always occasioned on my 

 body hard swellings, and as big as the end of my 

 finger. 



An insect still more disgusting annoyed us du- 

 ring the whole of our journey through Upper Egypt. 

 The inhabitants, ev-en of the better order, and who 

 appear the most cleanly, are covered with lice, in 

 spite of their frequent bathing and religious ablu- 

 tions 'f 



