VORACIOUS COMPANIONS. 



1*9 



the opinion that there is nothing like leather. Fortu- 

 nately most of our boxes are made of tin, and are there- 

 fore, so far as the ants are concerned, indestructible ; but 

 they have had a severe trial of strength in the frequent 

 loading and unloading of the camels, and sundry bulgings 

 and indentations tell their own tale of gradual destruc- 

 tion. We had very strong tin boxes made for us in 

 England, nearly square in shape, with convex lids ; but 

 at Cairo we had others made low, oblong, and with flat 

 tops by Russell's advice, as he thought ours would be 

 very awkward loads for the camels. 



Would that ants were our only plagues, for if they 

 did eat up all our clothes we could go about as natives 

 without much discomfort, and certainly with some ad- 

 vantage, so long as we remained in the country ; but 

 there is a far worse enemy in our present locality, a 

 subtle one that strikes you in the dark, and, confident in 

 his powers of baffling your efforts to arrest him, how- 

 ever strenuous they may be, adds insult to injury by 

 trumpeting his approach. This monster of the night, 

 after all, is only a mosquito ; but he is a very fine species, 

 and does his work so well that he must be felt to be fully 

 appreciated. Fortunately his visits are limited to a por- 

 tion only of the twenty-four hours, but the gap is not 

 altogether badly filled up by one that should rather be 

 termed an old friend than an enemy, so natural is it to 

 see him. Go where one may, so long as the sun shines 



