Habits of the Chegoe of Guiana, 293 



they had occupied, in order to prevent the remotest chance of 

 a regeneration. 



The Indian and negro wenches perform the operation of 

 extracting chegoes with surprising skill. They take a pin, 

 and, by a very slow process, they lay the part bare, and con- 

 trive to work quite round the bag which contains the chegoe 

 and its offspring. As soon as this has been effected, they 

 turn the bag out, whole and uninjured ; by which means none 

 are left in the hole to form a new colony. 



For my own part, I never troubled these gentle operators ; 

 although I have looked on many a time, and admired their 

 exquisite skill, whilst they were fingering the toes of my ac- 

 quaintance. Once, however, I had it not in my power to be 

 my own surgeon, and, on that occasion, a faithful old negro 

 performed the friendly office. 



I was descending the Demerara, with an inveterate tertian 

 ague ; and I was so much exhausted by sitting upright in the 

 canoe, that I no sooner got ashore at an Indian's hut, than I 

 lay down on the ground at full length. Sickness had pressed 

 so heavy on me, that I was callous to the well-known feeling 

 which the chegoe causes. I was quite unconscious that there 

 were nine thriving nests of chegoes in my back, until one was 

 accidentally observed by the old negro ; and this led to the dis- 

 covery of the rest. I handed him my penknife, and told him 

 to start the intruders. Sick as I was, I wished an artist were 

 present at the operation. The Indian's hut, with its scanty 

 furniture, and bows and arrows hanging round ; the deep ver- 

 dure of the adjoining forest ; the river flowing rapidly by ; 

 myself wasted to a shadow; and the negro grinning with ex- 

 ultation, as he showed me the chegoes' nests which he had 

 grubbed out; would have formed a scene of no ordinary 

 variety. 



Dogs are often sorely tormented by the chegoe ; and they 

 get rid of them by an extremely painful operation. They 

 gradually gnaw into their own toes, whining piteously as they 

 do it, until they get at the chegoe's nest. Were it not for this 

 singular mode of freeing themselves from the latent enemy, 

 dogs would absolutely be cripples in Guiana. 



But it is time to stop. I have penned down enough to give 

 the reader a tolerably correct idea of one of the smallest, and, 

 at the same time, one of the most annoying, insects, which 

 attack both man and beast in the interminable region of 

 Guiana. 



Walton Hall, Yorkshire, March 21. 1836. 



