Strange Doings in Egypt

Horowhenua Chronicle, 7 September 1915, Page 2

Strange Doings in Egypt

iiJiLoitJDEL , ui: :.:; 'jiiau ma.n. U''or The Chronicle}.

The following extracts are irom the letter of a well-known Uliau resident U(.,\v in cnarge oi the houses in ii>gypt. Tiie facts stated in it have not been made public in New Zealand hitherto, lor the" simple reason that the censor lias consistently suppressed any attempts to let them "'leak out." Since the main body of colonial troops has gone to the fighting line, nuwever, the censorship has ibeen relaxed where it applies to letters sent from the Egyptian base camps. JJeloie leaving lor the front the ■writer of t'liir, letter arranged with his .New Zealand correspondent that any letter containing important and censurable information should be couched in a gibberish they had used in their school days. The key to luib is being kept a secret to prevent tiie censor irom getting hold ol it; il.s effectiveness may be town Irom tiie lo!h/i\iug example. 'J'ho

simple (jueslioii : ' - Can you speak Uio

gibberish! , " bionics the iollowilig incomprehensible jargon: "Ankay ouyay eakspiiy othay fibber ishgay?" Of course i>:ii censor would

relive to pass .such a cipher, but the young and diilident oilicial at Cairo

piobably thought it was Maori and passed it rather than con lews f Iris ignorance of that noble language.

After a number uj desultory descrip-

tions of the heat. Hies, ants and other creepy things; the horribly-deformed

blind, halt, lame, pediculous, scabby, native beggars who seem to have con-

gregaied from all the immemorial Jllast

in the Egyptian capital; alter enlarging on the delights oi intermittent lever and cold shivering lits in tho shade temperature of liu degress, he i.ayts: "lint every cloud has a (silver lin-

mg.' } As Sainson says: "Out ol the eater cometh lorth meat; out oi the strong cometh sweetness." One grain oi coinlorb ii> to be lound in all this streiiuoiif-m ss. iSoiue .strong t>piriU aniongsi/ us when reduced to wiiite beat have lorgod in tlioir bubbliug Ijjuj Ji.-> somu new "language''' winch will prove adequate to any situation ever likely to occur in temperate ..New Zealand. 1 dare not commit any more ul it to paper. It might sink the ship. Our oilicial work here i.s minding hor.->e.s; but the harderst work we do is trying to remember that avo are civilized Britishers living in iJie 20th century. The temptation to revert to the original type is strong. AVe exereiise tiie liorsi.'s evri-y day and Jill our .st iea in ing pores with the durst of thu desert. At night there is .some little danger ol disappearing so they are counted regiilarl.) , every morning by the sei'geant-niajor. Keininds nie of t:i!l,\ing sheep in New Zealand. lour iniud would naturally turn to watehdogis, but Lord blesss you they would not nave a chunco. lhe dog here with his the kite and vulturo, perio.m the useful but liuuible role of destructor carts. They remove anything lrom a bunch oi carrobs to an empty earbide tin. I'joine English

■'Joiinuie,-/' brought out their "tikes" i\)th iiiein. bumu (,1 tnese innocently di inking tiie waters oi' me blue, eter-

nal JNilo. weio coii.sumcU by ''eroeogatoJ'a ; others leil to ihe House ol certain "Belgians' , who supply to Hie camp; olliors again winply went

ucsiinaiiun unknown

Tlie native

canine presents a minimum of tempta-

tion a.i regards loud-value, and in addition tu this he in iniinitely cautious. 'Ihe native peasant, ISoudaiiese, iullaii or hiibshee is a willing, but not enterprising horso-lliiol ; he lucks cralt,

originality and initiative. We used to picket 'the linos regularly at lirst but our beloved and evermore popular L'.U., liieut.-L'ol. Chxxxxrs, .spent part ol liirf holidays inventing .schemes to

circumvent the heathen. He improvised a -birdlime no strong that when smeared on n board and leit in the horse lines it effectually catches any native who inadvertently stops on it As tiie native-born knows nothing ol bird-lime, there being no trees in tlw cuunti - y .suitable lor its use, and Uja , - iny; a large knowledge and much, greater apprehension of devils, lie invariably yells and keeps on yelling till morning. The lKjibe effectually keeps away any other night prowlers; and so, as soon art no hear the first yell, we go to our levered bods, and sleep, if the ants will let us. The- eil'ect ot the adhesive mixture is similar to that ot u mustard plaster and raises a blister on tho sole of the horniest foot. By daylight the blister is usually sufficiently developed for the patient u> escape Avith the lotti of his cuticle and "dig out" lor the horizon.

1 turned out on the morning ot the first of the midnight dramas. 1 could see nhoro Ujo victim had been tearing his hair and rending his garments; but he was not there in flesli—only fragments of skin. 1 looked around. Thebrightening dawn was gilding the i'aco ol the calm unruffled Sphinx in etrong relief. Did my senses deceive me, or was its haltered left eye wrinkled in a knowing winkr , .Strange that the natives don't drop down to the but I suppose that the ones who have (suffered lor their sins dou'lo?)ubiish the entire details, and their neighbours think they have had the bastinado. Alter several repetitions of the «iffii:ir our off-hand explanations of the nocturnal howh'ngs as "some chap with the toothache" failed to'satisfy the enquiring fellaheen, and we achieved a useful reputation for torturing prisoners, which has left us m undisturbed peace so far a.s the local inhabitant is concerned. They are simple folk, easily managed when you understand them. They are lost -without a master and do what they are told to do with

"coWmenda'blo 'docility. lu many respects they remind me strongly of the cocky fanners.north of Stewart Island They hate to think for themselves just as much as the cow-puncher with a little hit paid oil' his place, who pays through the nose to the mortgagees and the hankers; who slaves away with, his wife sind children in the hope of getting his head above water; and who, in politics, slavishly follows tho lead of some old bell-wother of a squatter who got his laud when it could be had for the asking, and who has grown tat on unearned increment. A very different kettle of lish is your mongrel Arab from the backbloeks. By birth, pedigree, national traditions, taste, talent and Invbit he is a slave-dealer, pirate, liorse-fitoalor or general cut throat, as the occasion warrants. He is a counterpart ol the old-time style of .New Zealand land and estate agent. No ny-pnper business for him. One night we lost a splendid thoroughbred grey mare, the property of an English colonel, now pigging it in a sweaty dug-out at Galtlipoli. When wo Aviaterod the horses at sundown 1 notice a long, loan appaj,it<ion in a dirty ragged ■bunioose standing on thi> bank with his ejes hanging out at the horses wo were watering. He wore a great long sword, not girded to his side, but hanging on his back with the handle-end level with the top of his heatl, and had a libel ul-Wkiiig dagger about a yard Jong sticking in his belt, or, rather sash. Word went round that we were to be specially on tho look-out that night as there were a party of rovers iu the vicinity. My mate and I thought it a favourable opportunity to put into practice ;i "scouting" dodge which he had been nursing for some time. Ho had in his spare timo skinned a yuu-liorse that had died and had stuffed the half-cured skin with refuse- tent straw, leaving two cavities foro and aft .where a man might lurk and lio in wait for the unwary horse-thief. \Vo removed this "wooden horse" to the lines, and iu tho dark it looked quite realistic. When we had been snugly ensconced in the animal ror some minutes we suddenly discovered that a large colony of red ants had made a nest in tho carcase, and were delighted with the living larder provided ror them. Wo beat a hasty and proiano retreat, and the happy homo ol tho enterprising ants soon went "up in smoke. In the night tho horses .vero very restless and three ot them oroKc away j including the grey mare beforementioned. We soon got two of them but we never saw the grey again. In the morning two of our bird-lime boards were found with sand strewn all over them. Those "ftizzies" were not born yesterday, or even the day before. However, the 0.0. had a day off yesterday, and we all confidently oxpoct that he will have something effective even against die noble son of tho desert. I shall let you know next mail.