Ill 
THE ELEPHANT 
105 
animals in the trunk, which can either reach the 
desired spot directly, or can blow dust upon it when 
required. All shepherds in England appreciate the 
difficulty when their sheep are attacked by flies, but 
they can be relieved by the human hand ; a wild 
animal, on the contrary, has no alleviation, and it 
must eventually succumb to its misery. There is 
a peculiar fly in most tropical climates, but more 
especially in Ceylon, which lays live maggots, instead 
of eggs that require some time to hatch. These are 
the most dreadful pests, as the lively young maggots 
exhibit a horrible activity in commencing their 
work the instant they see the light; they burrow 
almost immediately into the flesh, and grow to a 
large size within twenty-four hours, occasioning the 
most loathsome sores. The best cure for any wound 
thus attacked, and swarming with live maggots, is a 
teaspoonful of calomel applied and rubbed into the 
deep sore. 
I have seen the Arabs in the Soudan adopt a 
most torturing remedy when a camel has suffered from 
a fly-blown sore back. Upon one occasion I saw a 
camel kneeling upon the ground with a number of 
men around it, and I found that it was to undergo 
a surgical operation for a terrible wound upon its 
hump. This was a hole as large and deep as 
an ordinary breakfast-cup, which was alive with 
maggots. The operator had been preparing a 
quantity of glowing charcoal, which was at a red 
heat. This was contained in a piece of broken 
chatty, a portion of a water-jar, and it was dexter- 
