Chap. II. FOREST OF AVEYROS. 97 



moments in the street, even at a distance from their 

 nests, we were sure to be overrun and severely punished, 

 for the moment an ant touched the flesh, he secured 

 himself with his jaws, doubled in his tail, and stung with 

 all his might. When we were seated on chairs in the 

 evenings in front of the house to enjoy a chat with our 

 neighbours, we had stools to support our feet, the legs of 

 which as well as those of the chairs, were well anointed 

 with the balsam. The cords of hammocks are obliged 

 to be smeared in the same way to prevent the ants from 

 paying sleepers a "visit. 



The inhabitants declare that the fire-ant was unknown 

 on the Tapajos, before the disorders of 1835-6, and be- 

 lieve that the hosts sprang up from the blood of the 

 slaughtered Cabanas. They have, doubtless, increased 

 since that time, but the cause lies in the depopulation 

 of the villages and the rank growth of weeds in the 

 previously cleared, well-kept spaces. I have already 

 described the line of sediment formed on the sandy 

 shores lower down the river by the dead bodies of the 

 winged individuals of this species. The exodus from 

 their nests of the males and females takes place at the 

 end of the rainy season (June), when the swarms are 

 blown into the river by squalls of wind, and subsequently 

 cast ashore by the waves. I was told that this wholesale 

 destruction of ant-life takes place annually, and that 

 the same compact heap of dead bodies which I saw only 

 in part, extends along the banks of the river for twelve 

 or fifteen miles. 



The forest behind Aveyros yielded me little except 

 insects, but in these it was very rich. It is not too 



VOL. II. H 



