410 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



carefully cut the cuticle all round with a sharp knife, and dug out 

 the intruder, the wound always bleeding profusely, so that I in- 

 variably broke the skin of the sac ; I next scraped the circular 

 cavity well inside, to be sure there were no eggs left in the place. 

 I never felt any pain, either at the time or afterwards, and the 

 wound always healed up perfectly, without the application of 

 ammonia or anything but water. 



Bernos. Captain Burton was fortunate enough not to suffer 

 from these insects. They are, indeed, the worst of all torments. 

 He says, " The cattle are painful spectacles, scarred and eaten by 

 the white grub of the local tzetze. It is called 'berne.' The 

 word is generally explained as a corruption of verne (worm), but I 

 believe it to be of Guarany origin. The worm is mentioned by 

 Azara, who believes that it penetrates the skin. Prince Max. (i. 29) 

 reasonably doubts this. Many tales are told of negroes losing 

 their lives in consequence of the grub being deposited in the nose 

 and other places ; if squeezed to death, and not extracted, it may, 

 of course, produce serious results. The usual treatment is by 

 mercurial ointment." * My dog was so bad from their attacks 

 that I feared I should have to kill him ; but mercurial ointment 

 proved effectual. He was again attacked, and I had him washed 

 with tobacco-water, the result being that all the bernos were 

 killed, and came out gradually, after which he rapidly recovered 

 and put on flesh. In the case of animals, the bernos always raise 

 a large hard lump, so with them the worm may possibly not enter 

 beyond the skin; but with those of our staff who suffered, it was 

 different. One of the staff extracted in all about thirty of the 

 maggots, three other men also suffered ; while a fifth had one 

 berno, which he tried to extract before it was ready, in so doing 

 he killed it, and leaving it in his arm it festered, and finally, 

 owing to ill-treatment by the natives, who put in a seton, he was 

 almost disabled. I also saw a baby of only three months old who 

 had two extracted from it. I suffered from one of these villains 

 under my left knee. At first I thought it was only a specially 

 inflamed carrapate bite, and as I was spotted with them like a 

 plum-pudding I forgot about it. However, it did not heal up, and 

 in about three weeks it became very painful ; then a small hole 

 * " Highlands of Brazil," vol. i. p. 36. 



