Whether it was because the temperature within the small building was too sultry or not I cannot say, but the vaccinator decided to complete his work in the open air, the fact that a dust-storm was raging notwithstanding.  The military doctor was accompanied by a colleague carrying a small pot or basin which evidently contained the serum.  The operation was performed quickly if crudely.  The vaccinator stopped before a man, dipped his lance or whatever the instrument was into the jar, and gripping the arm tightly just above the elbow, made four big slashes on the muscle.  The incisions were large, deep, and brutal-looking.  Then he passed to the next man, repeating the process, and so on all along the line.  He took no notice of the dust which was driving hither and thither in clouds.

Whether by misfortune or mishap I received four striking gashes, and the shape of the incisions made me wonder whether the vaccinator thought he was playing a game of noughts and crosses with a scalpel upon my arm.  After we had been wounded in this manner we were in a quandary.  Our arms were thickly covered with the drifting sand.  Our shirt sleeves were equally soiled.  Consequently infection of the wound appeared to be inevitable whatever we did.  In this unhappy frame of mind and dirty condition we were dismissed.  Unfortunately for me I proved resistant to the serum, and had to submit to the operation a second time with equally abortive results.  One or two of the prisoners suffered untold agonies, blood-poisoning evidently setting in to aggravate the action of the serum.

The primitive sanitary arrangements which prevailed brought one plague upon us.  We suffered from a pestilence of flies which under the circumstances was not surprising, everything being conducive to their propagation.  They swarmed around us in thick black clouds.  They recalled the British housefly, only they were much larger, and extremely pugnacious.  Life within the barracks became almost impossible owing to their attacks and the severity of their stings, which set up maddening irritation.  We petitioned the authorities to allow us a supply of fly-papers.  After considerable demur they acquiesced, but we could not use them, or rather they were used up too rapidly.  The evening we received them we decided to attach a few to the ceiling, but before we could fix them in position their fly-catching capacities were exhausted.  They were covered with a heaving, buzzing black mass of insects within a minute.  So we abandoned fly-catching tactics.

This pestilence harassed us sorely during our meals.  They settled everywhere and upon everything.  While butter or margarine were unobtainable at the canteen we were able to purchase a substance which resembled honey in appearance, colour, and taste.  Indeed we were told that it was an artificial product of the beehive.  When we spread this upon our bread the flies swarmed to the attack, and before the food could be raised to our mouths the bread was not