FLIES AND LICE IN EGYPT 451 



there are no proper streets and the villages are walled about as a protec- 

 tion against thieves and robbers. There are usually no barns or sheds for 

 the animals and these are sheltered in the houses with the family or on 

 the house top. 



The dung for fuel is mostly made up into small cakes and these are 

 dried in the sun and stored in the houses, often in an ornamental parapet. 

 For making these cakes the dung of cows and the water buffalo is used. 

 This is mixed with leaves, straw, etc. Horse or donkey manure is used 

 by itself, mostly as a fine dry dust to produce a quick fire for baking. It 

 will be seen from this that the Egyptian has no idea that manure is 

 unclean as we understand it. In the absence of rain, the Egyptian village 

 is always dusty and the dust is a mixture of soil, manure, and anything 

 that can be dried by the fierce sun into dust. 



The Egyptian has no idea of sanitation. It is one of the commonest 

 sights in all parts of Egypt where I have been, to see in the morning 

 hours the men squatting in the open for their morning relief. The very 

 wealthy and the residents in the larger towns and cities may have some 

 form of privies, but the open field is the habitual scene of operation for 

 the great bulk of the people. They have no more idea of the proper 

 disposal of garbage of any sort than of the manure of their animals and 

 their own ordure. 



The moisture necessary to maintain all life in these situations comes 

 from irrigation canals supplied by the waters of the Nile. Every village 

 is situated on or near a canal which supplies drinking water, serves as a 

 place for washing clothes, for bathing, and as a place for disposing of 

 anything that is to be thrown away, from a dead calf to a broken water 

 vessel. 



As to the second point. One of the tenets of the Mohammedan religion 

 is that the good Muslem is not allowed to take life, not even of the least 

 of God's creatures. 



In connection with the third of these points, it need only be stated 

 that the Egyptians are very superstitious about the Evil Eye. This 

 applies particularly to the children, who must not on any account be 

 admired or called pretty. It would be difficult to keep them clean, but 

 nobody wants them to be clean. 



It is unnecessary to give details as to the degree of fly infestation that 

 may be seen in a native village or in the native quarters of the towns 

 and cities. The relations of flies and children may be mentioned. 



Very young children are often to be seen with their faces so covered 

 with flies that it is difficult to tell the color of the child's skin. They 

 swarm in the eyes, nostrils and mouth, and cover the whole face. I have 

 often seen a small child being held or tended by another not much bigger, 

 raise its hand to brush away the mass of flies on its face and be prevented 



