Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-07-21
The

abCunds with extensive rice fields,
which are intersected In every direction
b, canals. The ancient Damietta, cap
turCd by King John of Jerusalem, 1919,
and occupied by st. Louis of France in
l249, is supposed to have stood near the
sea further to the north than the mod
ern town. A field near the town, which
is of dark red color, is known as the
Sea of Blood,n and as local tradition
has il, owes its hue to the blood Of 3d.
600 martyrs of Islam who were massac-
red there. The hills to the northeast
are known rs the Hills of Skeletons
from the immense number Ofhuman re-
mains found there, relics of the old cru
SADIE wars. Back of the town is Lake
MenZaleh, an almost interminable ex-
panse of sand, swamp and water, which
stretches as far east as Port Said. The
narrow strip of land lying between this
SO-cal.td lake and the sea is as deSolate
a region as can be found in all Egypt.
The harbOr of Damietta Is frequented
in times of peace by about 500 vessels
annually bat il Is very poor, as no ves-
sci of no more than go tons ear cross the
dangerous and shifting bar of the
Damietta arm Of the Nile, the emanuel
of which. under the most favorable cir
cUmstancCs, varies from 8 to IL feet in
depth. Yet tie place, in spite of these
drawbacks, has a considerable trade in
dates, bones, rag dried fish and grain.
AS might be Inferred from this brief
description of its surroundings, Dami-
eta is about as unhealthy a town as Is
TO be found in
The Land OF the Pharoah's.
NNvn - - n III, ,~,n-aHAI htu r,a fn
the place in the Thirteenth century, 1t
was almost destroyed by the epidemics
which prevailed, just as the armies OF
Napoleon, kieber and Menon were dec
imated by disease nearly six centuries
later. The whole region of the lower
Nile, in fact, is a vast hot-bed OF dis
ease, and the wonder is, not that so
many should succumb to the climate
during the unhealthy season, but that
any one should escape. The dreadful
"khamsin,n or hot wind, which the
strongest man cannot face without in
stantly feeling his muscles unstrong,
his skin parched and feverish, and his
whole body limp and nerveless as a wet
rag, is of itself q sufficient agent OF evil.
The fevers engendered By the malaria
of the Nile Delta are as virulent as even
those of European Turkey, while the
devastating visits of the plague itself
are neither few nor far between. a less
fatal but equally formidable enemy to
natives and foreigners alike is the terri
BILE Egyptian ophihalmia," which al
though often brought on by the
unclean habits Of the natives, is
at times generated in another
and very similar fashion. A small,
green fiy persistently settles upon the
sores ofthe diseased eyelid, and when
driven off carries the infection along
with it wherever it alights. So conf
mon is the disease among the Arabs
that Mehemit Ali is said to have
formed two battalions of one-eyed men,
the one wanting the righteye aud
the other the left. In l79S this
complaint made great ravages in
the army Of Bonaparte, one OF
whose best officers becoming blind in
the desert, was forced to cling to the
tail of his comrades horse in order to
make his way back to the camp. II Is
a common saying in Alexandria that
IAN Egyptian Arab with two eyes Is as
rare as a SNOWFALL in June" The prev
alence of Asiatie cholera in such a land
Of plaques is distressing accumulation
of horrors.