THE CHEGOE OF GUIANA. 447 



THE CHEGOE OF GUIANA. 



" Priore relicll 



Sede, novis domibus habitant, vivuntque receptae." OVID. 



Leaving their former haunts, beneath the skin 

 They form new settlements, and thrive within. 



THIS apparently insignificant insect far outdoes the bug in the exer- 

 cise of its noxious qualities. The bug attacks you in an open man- 

 ner, makes a hearty meal, and then retires to enjoy 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 ad- 

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

 that it is adopting measures which will infallibly end in your certain 

 torment. Soon after the chegoe has entered your skin, you experi- 

 ence a pleasant itching kind of sensation, by which you begin to sus- 

 pect that all is not right ; and, on taking a nearer view of the part, 

 you perceive that the skin is somewhat discoloured. 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 in- 

 spected 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 everything that can please our imagin- 

 ation, 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 impede our journey as we wander on. 

 The chegoe resembles a flea : and, had you just come out of a dove- 

 cot, on seeing it upon your skin, you might easily mistake it for a 

 small pigeon flea ; although upon a closer inspection, you would sur- 

 mise that it is not capable of taking those amazingly elastic bounds 

 so notorious in the flea of Europe. Not content with merely pay- 

 ing you a visit, and then taking itself off again, as is the custom of 



