Iv - University of Salford Institutional Repository

TT 1 -
Were you to come to our village as a tourist, it is likely, my
son, that you %you'd not stay 1( n. If it were in winter time,
when the palm trees are pollinated, you would find that a dark
cloud had descended over the village. This, my son, would not
be dust, nor yet that mist which rises up after rainfall. It would
be a swarm of those sand-flies which obstruct all paths to those
who wish to enter our village. Maybe you have seen this pest
before, but I swear that. you have never seen this particular
species. Take this gauze netting, my son, and put it over your
bead. While it won't protect you against these devils, it will
at least help you to bear t hem. I remember a friend of my son's,
a fellow student at school, whom my son invited to stay with us
a year ago at this t ime of the year. IIis people come from the
town. I le stayed one night with us and got up next day,
feverish, with a running nose and swollen face; he swore that
he wouldn't spend another night with us.
If you were to come to us in summer you would find the
horse-flies widt us—enormous flies the size of young sheep,
as we say. In comparison to these the sand-flies are a thousand
times more bearable. They are savage flies, my son: they bite,
sting, buzz, and whirr. They have a special love for man and no
sooner smell (flit than they attach themselves to him. Wave
them off you, my son—God curse all sand-flies.
And wet e you to come at a time which was neither summer
nor winter you ‘youid find nothing at all. No doubt, my son,
you read the papers daily, listen to the radio, and go to the
cinema once or twice a week. Should you become ill you have
the right to he treated in hospital, and if you have a son he
is entitled to receive education at a school. I know, my son,
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