The various Libyan nations inhabit their territories in the following order. Going west from Egypt, the first inhabitants of Libya one comes upon are the Adyrmachidians. The customs they follow the most are those of the Egyptians…Whenever they catch lice on themselves, they bite them back before throwing them away.
-The Histories of Herodotus, Book IV
KhairAllah only scolded me once in forty days, and I deserved it. I was sitting at the fireside, feeling itchy, my skin was crawling, and I reached into my sweater and pulled out a tick, a raakib (pl. rukaab ) as he called it, a rider. I threw it into the fire. “Why?” he asked. “Don’t do that again. They too are God’s creatures, just like you and me. And they too are riders, also just like you and me.”