The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1896-11-21
The Plague of Insects and Heavy Dust
Storms.


The Plague of Insects and Heavy Dust
Storms,
Our camp here is not a very peasant
place just now, writes an English officer
in Egypt to the London News. Despite
every effort of the authorities, it is nee
essarily becoming rather foul, and we
suffer not a little from the veritable
plague of flies that make our days un-
field to swa fffm2gn the first glimpse Of
flies and midges. 1t is natural enough
that this should be, for nearly every day
more dervishes and their horses or
camels are discovered lying unburled
among the rocks in unsupported places,
at no great distance from us. The heavy
duststorms that cause us perhaps more
discomfort than any other circumstance
of the campaign blow to us acros the
rocks strewn with these pitiful relics,
and literally reek of the loathsomeness
with which the dust is permeated. AS
may well be imagined, we are all look
ing forward eagerly to the rapid rise OF
the river, and the time-still some way
distant, for the rise is late this year
when the rolling red food, with a cur
rent of from six to lin many places
ten miles an hour, shall sweep many inn
purities before it, and cleanse the air
| ON either bank. However, the health of
the white men is marvelously good
This is no doubt in some considerable
measure due to the fact that nearly all
the Englishmen here are officers, and,
| therefore, have, even during this period
Of stagnation, heavy and responsible
" ork to go through.
Work on the railway formation is
proceeding merrily and making excel
lent -ogr Hitherto it was consid-
cred that the black soldiers were not
good at fatigue work, CT at any rate
were greatly the interiors of the Egyp-
tians, whose physique is infinitely more
powerful. But Maj. Lewis, from whose
/ brigade the Soudanese battalions fol
railway work here were drawn, put his
men on their mettle by telling them il
was said of them that they could not
work so well as the Egyptians, and that
he had refused to believe the calumny
This caiolery had such good effect thai
the Soudanese accomplished wonders
making one day a mile of embankmen'
in three hours.
It is good to watch the black bat
talions at their work on the formation
level. AS at all other times, they dis
play the utmost c~heerfullness and goo
hunor. They wear very little clothing
but the most varied and extravagan
headgear. A rim of mat basket worc
round the head, whose woolly crown re
mains exposed to the sun, is rathe
fashionable among them, and one bi
nude Dinka l have noticed who ha
managed to fasten somehow to his WOO
a great bunch of cocks feathers. TIL
fellow, who was evidently a great swell
was also very musical. All the while b
piled his task he sang a song whose r.
frain of "Alal, alo, Alal, alo," was take
up with great vigor by all the worker
in the neighborhood. But, indeed, the
all sing while they work, in m l SUI
: nose, of fellow tribesmen; they pa
their full baskets of earth from hand
hand to one chorus, empty them to a
: other, and hurl them hack to the oil
: gers to he reflled with a sort of shri
chuckle that haunts the tympanum t
{ DAYS. No one of their weird chantA
: unmusical, but the combination of Il
: varied tribal songs of 600 to 700 So
! danese makes SO ~bewildering and ca
: splitting a cacaphonic medley as mu
I be heard to be realized.
n In the sixteenth year Of Charles ]
t. 1888, debts of more than e10o, CO
tracted in gaming, were not colleottl
by Law.