were hit and we had the ironic satisfaction of sheltering
from his bombs in the trenches his countrymen had made. Even that failed to
keep the dinner warm, however.

The second and heavier blow was that the inhabitants of our little spinney
suddenly and unmistakably made their presence felt. Just as at Belah the
mosquitoes battened shamelessly upon us and the frogs burst into mighty
paeans of welcome, so at El Chauth the scorpions extended the glad hand--if
I may venture thus euphemistically to describe the spiked atrocity they
wear lengthwise on their backs. Apparently on strike for better conditions
of living they decided upon an army blanket as a desirable residence and
were quite indifferent as to whether you shared their quarters or not.
Often they were already in possession when blankets were unrolled for the
night, and if not then, one was usually to be found in the morning nestling
coyly in the folds. The moment you touched him with a stick he elevated his
poisonous battering-ram, which was as long as himself, and struck and
struck again in an ecstasy of rage, until sometimes he actually poisoned
himself and died from his own blows!

I believe a few men died after being stung by scorpions, certainly many
were temporarily incapacitated with poisoned arms and legs. This pleasing
possibility made a careful scrutiny of the blankets very necessary before
you settled down to sleep; and on waking in the morning you made no
unnecessary movement until you had first assured yourself that a scorpion
was not within striking distance. After a time somebody made the brilliant
discovery that every scorpion hates all other scorpions with a deep and
abiding hatred. This provided us with a new game. Instead of killing them
out of hand we caught the biggest scorpions, made a ring in the sand about
a couple of feet in diameter, and matched them in single combat.

They never went outside the ring, however low was the barrier of sand, but
would manoeuvre round the edge glowering at each other till one found an
opening; whereupon he sprang in, tail or battering-ram first, and hammered
away vigorously while his opponent tried his utmost to get round to the
other's head; then he started rapid fire on his own account. Generally they
ended by standing back to back and belabouring each other till one, or
both, dropped dead.

Sometimes, instead of putting two scorpions in the ring, by way of
variation we used to catch another sworn foe an