POISONS, POISONOUS SNAKES AND INSECTS, ETC. 397 



be kept at bay by rubbing the body and legs with a handful 

 of the green herb. Any of the essential oils rubbed on the 

 parts which they especially infest will keep them away. 



There is a species of large gnat, known as the " buffalo- 

 gnat," about one-third as large as the common house-fl}-, 

 that is a terror to the horse, mule, and deer of the regions 

 in the vicinity of the large river swamps of the lower Mis- 

 sissippi, but which does not often trouble other animals. It 

 makes its appearance on the first warm days of spring, and 

 comes in swarms of millions, which attack their victim with 

 a murderous ferocity. They cover his side, flanks, belly, 

 breast, head, and neck; the nostrils and ears are literally 

 filled with them ; and, unless prevented, they will even crawl 

 up into the nasal cavities, so as to fairly strangle the horse 

 to death. It is not at all uncommon for them to kill both 

 horses and mules. 



Perhaps fifty times, while riding through the regions 

 named, have we been compelled to get a bush and brush 

 away at the gnats, while the horse went at the top of his 

 speed to the nearest house, there to receive a smearing of lard 

 and tar, the only thing that would keep his insatiate tor- 

 mentors at bay. 



In 1862, a regiment of Confederate cavalry encamped in 

 Holmes County, Mississippi, near where the author was then 

 residing. Thirty-five mules, belonging to the wagon-train, 

 were destroyed by butfalo-gnats in one night — a fact of 

 which we had personal knowledge. 



Hunters often build large fires, iyid set old trees and 

 stumps on fire, and the deer coming and standing in the 

 smoke to get rid of the gnats are often shot down by the 

 hunter from his ambush. In this way, numbers of unsus- 

 pecting animals are sometimes killed. The deer all leave 

 the swamps for the interior when the gnats are unusually 

 tormenting. The buflalo-gnat never attacks the human being. 

 The swarms in which it always moves come all at once, and go 

 the same way. They remain usually about six weeks, and in 

 one day's time will all be gone, so quick is their disappearance. 



