TIIEIB VORACITY IN CERTAIN PLACES. 283 



tranquil night's rest, for the jejen is not a nocturnal insect. 

 Since the year 1801, the great blue-winged gnat (Culex 

 cyanopterus) has appeared in such numbers, that the poor 

 inhabitnats of Simiti know not how to procure an undis- 

 turbed sleep. In the marshy channels (esteros) of the isle 

 of Baru, near Carthagena, is found a little white fly called 

 cafafi. It is scarcely visible to the naked eye, and causes 

 very painful swellings. The toldos or cottons used for 

 mosquito-curtains, are wetted to prevent the cafafi pene- 

 trating through the interstices left by the crossing threads. 

 This insect, happily rare elsewhere, goes up in January, by 

 the channel (dique) of Mahates, as far as Morales. When 

 we went to this village in the month of May, we found 

 there cimulice and zancudos, but nojejens. 



The insects most troublesome at Orinoco, or as the Creoles 

 say, the most ferocious (los mas feroces), are those of the 

 great cataracts of Esmeralda and Mandavaca. On the Rio 

 Magdalena the Culex cyanopterus is dreaded, particularly at 

 Mom pox, Chiloa, and Tamalameca. At these places this 

 insect is larger and stronger, and its legs blacker. It is dif- 

 ficult to avoid smiling on hearing the missionaries dispute 

 about the size and voracity of the mosquitos at different 

 parts of the same river. In a region the inhabitants of which 

 are ignorant of all that is passing in the rest of the world, 

 this is the favourite subject of conversation. " How I pity 

 your situation !" said the missionary of the Baudales to the 

 missionary of Cassiquiare, at our departure ; " you are alone, 

 like me, in this country of tigers and monkeys ; with you 

 fish is still more rare, and the heat more violent ; but as for 

 my mosquitos (mias moscas) 1 can boast that with one of 

 mine I would beat three of yours." 



This voracity of insects 'in certain spots, the fury with 

 which they attack man,* the activity of the venom varying 

 in the same species, are very remarkable facts ; which find 

 their analogy, however, in the classes of large animals. The 

 crocodile of Angostura pursues men, while at Neuva Barce- 



* This voracity, this appetite for blood, seems surprising in little 

 insects, that live on vegetable juices, and in a country almost entirely 

 uninhabited. " What would these animals eat, if we did not pass this 

 way ?" say the Creoles, in going through countries where there are only 

 crocodiles covered with a scaly skin, and hairy monkeys. 



