Egyptian Family Harvests Lice
By BASSEM MROUE
12:02 PM ET 09/26/99
ABU RAWASH, Egypt (AP) - The hunter poises over his prey, his weapons close at
hand - a towel, a comb and a pair of tweezers. After harvesting lice from the head of a
homeless man, Mohammed Abbas al-Sayyad will sell the insects to Cairo University so that
entomology students can study them.
He also collects other insects, poisonous and nonpoisonous snakes, frogs and
rats for Cairo and several other Egyptian universities and research centers.
He's continuing a tradition of hunting for science followed by his father,
grandfather and great-grandfather. ``Any doctor who graduated from an Egyptian university
must have had to deal with a member of our family,'' al-Sayyad said. He traces the family
trade - a lucrative and sometimes-dangerous enterprise - back 300 years, and says early
customers included foreign explorers in Egypt. Al-Sayyad, in fact, means ``the hunter.''
``Every member of this family does this job, and even if someone has another
job, he goes hunting every now and then,'' said al-Sayyad, sitting cross-legged on a
cushion in his two-story house in Abu Rawash, a village 15 miles west of Cairo.
His contract with Cairo University, his biggest client, was $58,000 last year, a
huge amount in a country where many make less than $100 a month. Orders range from as many
as 500 lice to a few dozen snakes. The rarer the animal, the higher the price. Other
families in Abu Rawash do similar work. The village is ``a rich area of insects and since
it is close to Cairo and the university it is the suitable place to buy the needed samples
of insects for the students,'' said Rifaat Gharib Abul-Ila, head of Cairo University's
insect department.
The Egyptian Organization for Biological Products and Vaccines, which produces
antivenom for snake and scorpion bites and exports the products to 26 countries, also
occasionally calls on the people of Abu Rawash.
Al-Sayyad goes hunting outside Abu Rawash once every two weeks, sometimes
ranging as far as the Western Desert and Upper Egypt. He himself began as a child, and now
takes along his sons, 6-year-old Islam and 5-year-old Ahmed, but makes sure the children
handle only nonpoisonous snakes for now.
He can earn $58 for a deadly cobra and $43.50 for a cerastes, a snake that is
almost as dangerous.
During a hunting trip in the Western Desert a few years ago, al-Sayyad was
bitten on the finger by a cerastes. He tied a tourniquet to prevent the poison from
spreading and injected himself with antivenom.
Nonetheless, he said, ``I would never consider changing my job, despite all the
dangers.''
