Habits of the Chegoe of Guiana. 291 



an open manner, makes a hearty meal, and then retires to en- 

 joy it : but the chegoe commences its operations upon you 

 so gently, that they are scarcely felt ; and it terminates them 

 in a way that calls for your most serious attention. In a word, 

 it approaches you with such insinuating address, that you 

 absolutely feel a kind of gratification, at the very time that 

 it is adopting measures which will infallibly end in your cer- 

 tain torment. 



Soon after the chegoe has entered your skin, you ex- 

 perience a pleasant itching kind of sensation, by which you 

 begin to suspect that all is not right ; and, on taking a nearer 

 view of the part, you perceive that the skin is somewhat dis- 

 coloured. 



I know it is supposed by some people, that the accounts 

 concerning the chegoe have been much exaggerated. I am 

 not of this way of thinking, for I myself have smarted under 

 its attacks ; and I have minutely inspected the foot of a negro, 

 which was a mass of ulcers, formed entirely by the neglected 

 ravages of the chegoe. 



Guiana is the native country of this insect. In that hot 

 and humid region, which is replete with every thing that can 

 please our imagination, or administer to our wants, we must 

 not be surprised to find here and there some little drawback ; 

 some few obstructions in our way ; some thorny plants to im- 

 pede our journey as we wander on. 



The chegoe resembles a flea ; and, had you just come out of 

 a dovecot, on seeing it upon your skin, you might easily mis- 

 take it for a small pigeon flea ; although, upon a closer inspec- 

 tion, you would surmise that it is not capable of taking those 

 amazingly elastic bounds, so notorious in the flea of Europe. 



Not content with merely paying you a visit, and then taking 

 itself off again, as is the custom of most insects, this insidious 

 miner contrives to work its way quite under your skin, and 

 there remains to rear a numerous progeny. I once had the 

 curiosity to watch the movements of a chegoe on the back of 

 my hand, a part not usually selected by it to form a settle- 

 ment. It worked its way pretty rapidly for so small an insect. 

 In half an hour it had bored quite through the skin, and was 

 completely out of sight. Not wishful to encourage its in- 

 tended colony, " Avast, there ! my good little fellow," said I ; 

 " we must part company without loss of time. I cannot 

 afford to keep you, and a numerous family, for nothing : you 

 would soon eat me out of house and home." On saying 

 this, I applied the point of my penknife to the place where 

 the chegoe had entered, and turned it loose upon the world 

 again. 



