INSECTS MOUNTING GUARD. 153 



ter of an hour, of repose. The insects that disappeared 

 did not have their places instantly supplied by their suc- 

 cessors. From half-past six in. the morning till five in 

 the afternoon, the air was filled with mosquitos. An 

 hour before sunset a species of small gnat took the place 

 of the mosquitos. Their presence scarcely lasted an 

 hour and a half; they disappeared between six and 

 seven in the evening, or, as they said there, after the 

 Angelus. After a few minutes' repose, the travellers 

 would be stung by zancudos, another species of gnat 

 with very long legs. The zancudo, the proboscis of which 

 contains a sharp-pointed sucker, caused the most acute 

 pain, and a swelling that remained several weeks. Its 

 hum resembled that of the European gnat, but was 

 louder and more prolonged. In the day-time, and even 

 when labouring at the oar, the natives, in order to chase 

 the insects, were continually giving one another smart 

 slaps with the palm of the hand. They even struck 

 themselves and their comrades mechanically during their 

 sleep. Near Maypures the travellers saw some young 

 Indians seated in a circle and rubbing cruelly each other's 

 backs with the bark of trees dried at the fire. Indian 

 women were occupied, with a degree of patience of which 

 the copper-coloured race alone are capable, in extracting, 

 by means of a sharp bone, the little mass of coagulated 

 blood that formed the centre of every sting, and gave 

 the skin a speckled appearance. One of the most bar- 

 barous nations of the Orinoco, that of the Ottomacs, was 

 acquainted with the use of mosquito-curtains, woven 

 from the fibres of the moriche palm-tree. At Higuerote, 

 on the coast of Caracas, the copper-coloured people slept 

 buried in the sand. In the villages of the Rio Magda- 



