Heading for a long weekend in Berlin – and meeting among others Nicole and Jördis to speak about fire dogs and future activities on Sai – sentimental memories of this season at SAV1E come up! Last but not least, memories of the millions of nimiti we lived with and survived!

It was just a few weeks ago that I found this interesting passage in Herodotus’ “Account of Egypt” referring to ancient ways of dealing with flying insects:

“Against the gnats, which are very abundant, they have contrived as follows: ‒ those who dwell above the fen-land are helped by the towers, to which they ascend when they go to rest; for the gnats by reason of the winds are not able to fly up high: but those who dwell in the fenland have contrived another way instead of the towers, and this it is: ‒ every man of them has got a casting net, with which by day he catches fish, but in the night he uses it for this purpose, that is to say he puts the casting-net round about the bed in which he sleeps, and then creeps in under it and goes to sleep: and the gnats, if he sleeps rolled up in a garment or a linen sheet, bite through these, but through the net they do not even attempt to bite.” (translated by G. C. Macaulay, 2006, e-book available via http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2131)

Very obviously, the annoying bugs described here cannot be nimiti – no way that a simple fishing net would keep them off! But in any case, Herodotus’ account provides some comfort – we are much better equipped than the ancient sufferers! And we should probably think about collecting all of our nimiti tales for future generations…