THE FLIES OF EGYPT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2587, 9 February 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE FLIES OF EGYPT.

As downright pe>ts the sandflies of the Egyptian deserts take the deserts palm. Fort Tel-el-Kebir, the day after the battle there in ISB'2, presented an extraordinary collection. It was the scene of a great and perhaps unsurpassed gathering of flies. It may be remarked that the Egyptian troops had neglected to bury their dead ; in fact-, the Egyptian troops had to take to their heels quite suddenly, and the British did not trouble to bury j their enemy's dead, so that the bodies of the dead Arabs and Egyptians lay about the trenches and fort wails. Long before I got to the trenches I noticed a dark line distinctly visible ou the otherwise bright sandy landscape, and as I got i nearer the fort seemed to be covered with . a dark pall. I could not account for thin | phenomenon at first, and at tho instant; it was suggestive of the supernatural. On j nearer approach however, at about 150 j yards distance from tile dark mass, I j heard distinctly a loud humming noise. As I approached nearer the sound increased in volume until it became a loud roar. It was not, until I was close to the black line that I could make out the cause. Then I could see the topmost flies as they hovered and dived above the lower strata. I could trace this black line of flies for half a mile or so oil either side of me, and it rose like a thick curtain for some 10 yards off the ground. Here is a calculation for some mathematician. A wall of flies one mile lout;, 10 yards high and 40 yards wide ; and the flies so thickly massed that they might le said to be riding one on top of the other and brushing each other side by side. This black wall represented the line of dead Egyptians ; and, certainly, if they were unburied they did not want for pall. Howwas I to get through this cordon of flies was a doubtful problem. Time was pressing, and a party of Arabs were hanging behind and enjoying some nice ball practice with my pony and mo for targets. To go around the flank of this fly-wall was out of the question ; so I put spurs to my pony and urged him through. The brute refused several time literally frightened by the hum and noise. At last I managed to get him " head on," and never shall I forget my passage through those 40 yards of flies, they presented such a firm front as we passed through that I could feel a heavy pressure —heavy enough to compel ine instinctively to grip the saddle closer to my knees. I had to close my mouth and eyes, and trust to chance to get straight through ; and it was no easy matter to endure the horrible stench that emanated from the mass. My pony was so terrified that I could not pull him up until he had got some hundred yards beyond the black mass and out in the clear desert air again. I looked behind me now and again as I continued on my journey, and there in the blazing sun was the same dark pall—a distinct feature in the desert and to me a hideous memory of flies. I may further mention that I passed by these same trenches a week after, and the dead bodies were still there —now black bloated masses, save that in some cases a black stain in the sand surmonted by a skeleton told where once there had been human flesh. But the fly hordes bud gone ; even they were satiated when there was nothing left but the animal juices. From this, two, I conclude that flie3, however numerous, play but a small part in the dissolution of dead bodies ; putrefaction under a hot sun is so rapid that the air is the great absorbing factor ; but that tho (lies help the process goes without question.—J'ttilie Opinion.