DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5073#0193
J 82
KHAMSEEN.
the sea I went up and bathed in the bright spring,
which is shaded over by noble trees. Late in the
evening a terrible khamseen set in, and we had a wild
night, the tents every now and then coming down over
our heads as we lay panting and suffocating on our
beds; they had been badly pitched on soft ground,
where the pins would not hold, and two of them had
been unwittingly placed on an ant-march, so that the
unfortunate occupiers were swarmed, over the whole
night through, by countless multitudes of the black
beasties. The khamseen brought up thousands of
sand-flies, who operated vigorously upon our faces,
for we had no mosquito curtains then, and we became
so ill with the unwholesome air, that we got up at three
o'clock to dress, in hopes of getting off by daylight, —
but, pour comble de malheur, I was incautiously wash-
ing upon the grass, when a big black scorpion, astounded
at the apparition, walked up to one of my feet and
stung me, and I fell into such pain for some hours that
dressing or moving was out of the question. We sent
off to Beyrout for ammonia, but by the time it came I
•was better. The khamseen began to abate, and we
reached the hotel at mid-day, very ready for breakfast
and thankful it was no worse, for the black scorpions
are the least venomous of the race. The yellow ones
sting terribly, and cause fearful agony and swelling,
but the wound is seldom fatal.
We found a large party of our Nile companions
arrived at the hotel in readiness for the French home
steamer; it was pleasant to meet with even such slight
acquaintances in this distant land,— but the change
effected in them all since we had met in Egypt was
more or less appalling. The nose of each one had been
skinned once or twice or thrice; several were in the
KHAMSEEN.
the sea I went up and bathed in the bright spring,
which is shaded over by noble trees. Late in the
evening a terrible khamseen set in, and we had a wild
night, the tents every now and then coming down over
our heads as we lay panting and suffocating on our
beds; they had been badly pitched on soft ground,
where the pins would not hold, and two of them had
been unwittingly placed on an ant-march, so that the
unfortunate occupiers were swarmed, over the whole
night through, by countless multitudes of the black
beasties. The khamseen brought up thousands of
sand-flies, who operated vigorously upon our faces,
for we had no mosquito curtains then, and we became
so ill with the unwholesome air, that we got up at three
o'clock to dress, in hopes of getting off by daylight, —
but, pour comble de malheur, I was incautiously wash-
ing upon the grass, when a big black scorpion, astounded
at the apparition, walked up to one of my feet and
stung me, and I fell into such pain for some hours that
dressing or moving was out of the question. We sent
off to Beyrout for ammonia, but by the time it came I
•was better. The khamseen began to abate, and we
reached the hotel at mid-day, very ready for breakfast
and thankful it was no worse, for the black scorpions
are the least venomous of the race. The yellow ones
sting terribly, and cause fearful agony and swelling,
but the wound is seldom fatal.
We found a large party of our Nile companions
arrived at the hotel in readiness for the French home
steamer; it was pleasant to meet with even such slight
acquaintances in this distant land,— but the change
effected in them all since we had met in Egypt was
more or less appalling. The nose of each one had been
skinned once or twice or thrice; several were in the