... I had the privilage to work on a 'dig' located in El Aksur, Egypt. Our extremely hard working and fantastic Arabic crew worked wonders in all aspects of the mission. However, our Reis took a dislike to me after I had admonished him on the poor state of one of the donkeys. In retrospect, I could have been more sympathetic to his stand point, given the absence of a vet with a decent flea treatment program within 100 k's, but his curse, voluable, spitting and directed at me with much venom, loosely translates as:

"May the fleas of a thousand camels give birth in your armpit."

I've used this many times since... and without swearing, it aptly sums it all up. *S* The Arabic equivalent of giving someone the finger *lol*