I heard swords drawn.
I could not understand the absence of the rencers. This seemed to me utterly inexplicable. Why should they not, now, fall upon the vanguard, milling, tormented, confused, mutinous, helpless, exhausted in the marsh?
'Speak to us, Labienus!' cried men.
'Glory to Ar!' called a man.
'Glory to Ar!' called others.
'Lead us south, oh Labienus!' called a man.
'There lies Ar!' cried another.
'South! South!' called men.
'Would you share the fate of the 7th, the 9th, the 11th, the 14th?' called a fellow. 'We have remnants of them here. Ask them if we should march south!'
'No, not south!' cried a man.
'Not south!' cried another.
'Labienus has brought us here!' called a fellow, angrily. 'He is to blame! He is to fault! Kill him! Kill him! He is Cosian spy.'
'Cosian spy!' cried others.
'Your words are treason!' cried a voice. 'Defend yourself!'
I heard the clash of metal.
'Hold!' cried men. I think the two were forced apart by blades.
'It is Labienus!' called a voice.
'Traitor, Labienus!' screamed a man.
'Be silent!' said another.
'What shall we do, Labienus?' asked a man.
'Lead us, Captain!' cried others.
'Look out!' cried a man, suddenly. I heard a humming nearby. It was the sound of large wings, moving rapidly.
'It is only a zarlit fly,' said another.
The zarlit fly is very large, about two feet long, with four large, translucent wings, with a span of about a yard. It has large, padlike feet on which, when it alights, it can rest on the water, or pick its way delicately across the surface. Most of them are purple. Their appearance is rather formidable, and can give one a nasty turn in the delta, but, happily, one soon learns they are harmless, at least to humans. Some of the fellows of Ar were still uneasy when they were in the vicinity. The zarlit fly preys on small insects, usually taken in flight.
'There is another,' said a fellow.
I thought it odd that there should be two, so close together.
'Speak to us, oh Labienus!' called a man.
'Speak!' cried another.
I heard the humming passage of another fly.
'They are going east,' said a man. 'Labienus!' called a man.
I heard two more zarlit flies hum past.
'Look to the west!' called a man. 'They are clouds,' said a fellow. 'Such dark clouds,' said a man.
'Seldom have I seen clouds so dark,' said another.
'It is a storm,' said another. I suddenly felt sick.
'Labienus will speak to us,' said a man.
'What is that sound?' asked a man, frightened.
If Labienus was prepared to address the men, he did not then begin to speak.
I suspect that the men, on the barges, on the craft, the scows and rafts, those in the marsh itself, had now turned their eyes westward.
I had never been in the delta at this particular time.
I now, I was sure, understood the absence of the rencers.
'Listen,' said a man.
'I hear it,' said another.
I myself had never heard the sound before, but I had heard of it.
'Such vast clouds, so black,' said a man.
'They cover the entire horizon,' said another, wonderingly.
'The sound comes from the clouds,' said a man. 'I am sure of it.'
'I do not understand,' said a man.
At such a time, which occurs every summer in the delta, the rencers withdraw to their huts, taking inside with them food and water, and then, with rence, weave shut the openings to the huts. Two or three days later they emerge from the huts.
'Ai!' cried a fellow, suddenly, in pain.
'It is a needle fly,' said a fellow.
'There is another,' said a man.
'And another,' said another.
Most sting flies, or needle flies, as the men from the south call them, originate in the delta, and similar places, estuaries and such, as their eggs are laid on the stems of rence plants. As a result of the regularity of breeding and incubation times there tends, also, to be peak times for hatching. These peak times are also in part, it is thought, a function of a combination of natural factors, having to do with conditions in the delta, such as temperature and humidity, and, in particular, the relative stability of such conditions. Such hatching times, as might be supposed, are carefully monitored by rencers. Once outside the delta the sting flies, which spend most of their adult lives as solitary insects, tend to disperse. Of the millions of sting flies hatched in the delta each summer, usually over a period of four or five days, a few return each fall, to begin the cycle again.
'Ai!' cried another fellow, stung.
Then I heard others cry out in pain, and begin to strike about them.
'The clouds come closer!' cried a fellow.
There could now be no mistaking the steadily increasing volume of sound approaching from the west. It seemed to fill the delta, it is produced by the movement of wings, the intense, almost unimaginably rapid beating of millions upon millions of small wings.
'Needle flies are about!' cried a man. 'Beware!'
'The clouds approach more closely!' cried a man.
'But what are the clouds?' cried a fellow.
'They are needle flies!' cried a man.
I heard shrieks of pain. I pulled my head back, even in the hood. I felt a small body strike against my face, even through the leather of the hood.
I recoiled, suddenly, uttering a small noise of pain, it stifled by the gag. I had been stung on the shoulder. I lowered my body, so that only my head, hooded, was raised above the water. I heard men leaping into the water. The buzzing was now deafening.
'My eyes!' screamed a man. 'My eyes!'
The flies tend to be attracted to the eyes, as to moist, bright objects.
I felt the raft pitch in the water as men left it.
The sting of the sting fly is painful, extremely so, but it is usually not, unless inflicted in great numbers, dangerous. Several stings, however, and even a few, depending on the individual, can induce nausea. Men have died from the stings of the flies but usually in such cases they have been inflicted in great numbers. A common reaction to the venom of the fly incidentally is a painful swelling in the area of the sting. A few such stings about the face can render a person unrecognizable. The swelling subsides, usually, in a few Ahn.
I drew against the harness. From the feel of this I was sure the raft was empty.
'They darken the sun!' screamed a man.
I heard more fellows leaping into the water.
All about me was screaming, sounds of misery, the striking about, the slapping, the cursing of men.
I felt the small bodies pelting my hood.
