Chap. Vil.] MYRIAPODS. 297 



nutive vermin will sometimes drop from a biancli, if 

 unluckily shaken, and disperse themselves over the body, 

 each fastening on the neck, the ears, and eyelids, and 

 inserting a barbed proboscis. They burrow, wdth their 

 heads pressed as far as practicable under the skin, causing 

 a sensation of smarting, as if particles of red hot sand 

 had been scattered over the flesh. If torn from their 

 liold, the suckers remain behind and form an ulcer. 

 The only safe expedient is to tolerate the agony of 

 their penetration till a drop of coco-nut oil or tlie 

 juice of a lime can be appHed, when these httle furies 

 drop off with )Ut further ill consequences. One very 

 large species, dappled with grey, attaches itself to the 

 buffaloes. 



Mites. — The Trornhidium tinctorum of Hermann is 

 found about Aripo, and generally over the northern pro- 

 vinces, — where after a shower of rain or heavy night's 

 dew, they appear in countless myiiads. It is about half 

 an inch long, like a tuft of crimson velvet, and imparts 

 its coloming matter readily to any fluid in which it may 

 be immersed. It feeds on vegetable juices, and is per- 

 fectly innocuous. Its European representative, similarly 

 tinted, and found in garden mould, is commonly called 

 the " Little red pilhon." 



Myriapods. — The certainty wdth which an accidental 

 pressure or unguarded touch is resented and retorted by 

 a bite, makes the centipede, when it has taken up its 

 temporary abode within a sleeve or the fold of a dress, 

 by far the most unwelcome of all tlie Singhalese assail- 

 ants. The great size, too (httle short of a foot in lengtli), 

 to whicli it sometimes attains, renders it formidable ; and, 

 apart from the apprehension of unpleasant consequences 

 from a wound, one shudders at the bare idea of such 

 liideous creatures crawling over the skin, beneath the 

 innermost folds of one's garments. 



At the head of the Myriapocl% and pre-eminent from 

 a superiorly-developed organisation, stands the genus 

 Cermatia : singular-looking objects ; mounted upon 



