Sailing up the Nubian Nile we are almost free from the flies such as are found by millions in Egypt, but Nubia has a little fly of its own which is almost unbearable. This is known as the _nimetta_, a small midge, which appears in myriads during the winter season. Its bite causes a slight fever, and the natives sometimes wear bunches of smouldering grass twisted about their heads to keep it away. The flies of Egypt are probably the descendants of those which the Lord sent to afflict Pharaoh when he would not let the Children of Israel go. They look not unlike the common fly of our country, but they are bolder and hungrier. Their feet stick to one as though they were glued and they will not move until forcibly brushed off, but the Egyptian peasants have become so used to them that they let them stick at will. Their favourite feeding place seems to be on one’s eyes. This is especially true of the children, and it is a common sight to see a child with its eyes so fringed with flies that it seems to have double eyelashes. The flies cover the meat in the markets, they roost on the buffaloes, camels, and donkeys, and attack the tourist to such an extent that the selling of fly brushes has become an Egyptian industry. The brushes are tassel-like affairs with long strings similar to the hairs of a horse’s tail. Everyone knows that flies carry disease and many of the troubles of the Egyptians are due to them. Ophthalmia is especially prevalent. There are blind people everywhere, while one-eyed men and women are common. Diseases of the eye are so universal that one of the charities of Lower Egypt is a company of travelling eye doctors, who are supported by a rich Englishman. The doctors go from village to village, carrying their tents with them. As they enter a town, word goes out that the poor will be treated without charge, and crowds come to their tents to have their eyes examined and cured. They remain in one town for a month or so, serving the poor without money and without price. The institution does great good. The port of Shellal, where I took the steamer for Wady Halfa, lies opposite the island of Philæ, and during my stay there I made several trips to the island to take photographs of the ruined temples, which have already been more or less affected by the backing up of the water of the Aswan Dam. When the Aswan Dam was first proposed a great outcry came from the savants and archæologists of the world on account of the injury that it would do to Philæ, but the material results have been so valuable to Egypt that the dam went ahead, regardless of the preservation of these ancient ruins. Something like one hundred thousand dollars was spent in fortifying the structure during the building of the dam, and it is probable that twice this amount would have sufficed to take up the temples and carry them to the mainland, or even transport them to Cairo, where all the world might see them.