164 OUT OF DOORS. 



rash, and quite as annoying. Others, again, will set to 

 work in a calmly composed and business-like style, 

 alight on his hand or wrist, produce a case of lancets 

 from their mouths, and bleed him with the practised 

 skill of an old surgeon. 



Besides all these foes, the forest is haunted by 

 myriads of horrid ticks flat-bodied active little crea- 

 tures, with legs that cling like burrs, and heads barbed 

 like the point of a harpoon. These insidious animals 

 swarm upon the passenger, and are sure to discover 

 some method by which they may creep through the 

 clothes and operate on their victim. Imperceptibly 

 the barbed head is thrust under the skin, and the crea- 

 ture begins to suck the blood of its human prey with 

 such voracity that before many minutes have passed, its 

 flat and almost invisible body swells into a blood-dis- 

 tended bag, and the tick looks more like a ripe black 

 currant than an insect. If it should be discovered 

 it must in no wise be torn away by violence, or its 

 barbed head would remain in the wound and be the cause 

 of painful inflammation. 



There are two modes of ridding oneself of ticks. 

 One method is by lighting a large fire, taking off all 

 clothing, and rotating before the blaze as if attempting 

 suicide by roasting. The ticks cannot endure the heat, 

 and soon fall off, but as this process is hardly feasible 

 in an English forest, it is better to have recourse to 

 the second method, which is simply to brush them with 

 a feather dipped in oil. 



