Chap. VI. (ESTKUS FLIES. 407 



order, despatched a party of armed men of the National 

 Guard to the place to make inquiries, and, if the murder 

 should appear to be unprovoked, to retaliate. When they 

 reached the settlement of the horde who had eaten the 

 two men, it was found evacuated, with the exception of 

 one girl, who had been in the woods when the rest of 

 her people had taken flight, and whom the guards 

 brought with them to St. Paulo. It was gathered from 

 her, and from other Indians on the Jauari, that the 

 young men had brought their fate on themselves 

 through improper conduct towards the Majerona 

 women. The girl, on arriving at St. Paulo, was taken 

 care of by Senhor Jose Patricio, baptised under the 

 name of Maria, and taught Portuguese. I saw a good 

 deal of her, for my friend sent her daily to my house 

 to fill the water-jars, make the fire, and so forth. I 

 also gained her good-will by extracting the grub of an 

 CEstrus fly * from her back, and thus cured her of a 

 painful tumour. She was decidedly the best-humoured 

 and, to all appearance, the kindest-hearted specimen of 



* A species of (Estrus or gadfly, on the upper Amazons, fixes on the 

 flesh of man as breeding place for its grub. I extracted five at different 

 times from my own flesh. The first was fixed in the calf of my leg, causing 

 there a suppurating tumour, which, being unaware of the existence of 

 this (Estrus, I thought at first was a common boil. The tumour grew and 

 the pain increased until I became quite lame, and then, on carefully 

 examining the supposed boil, 1 saw the head of a grub moving in a 

 small hole at its apex. The extraction of the animal was a difficult 

 operation, it being an inch in length and of increasing breadth from 

 head to tail, besides being secured to the flesh of the inside of the 

 tumour by two horny hooks. An old Indian of Ega showed me the 

 most effective way of proceeding, which was to stupefy the grub with 

 strong tobacco juice, causing it to relax its grip in the interior, and 

 then pull it out of the narrow orifice of the tumour by main force. 



