192 WANDERINGS IN 



THIRD own W ant of knowledge, and, I may add, the little 



JOURNEY. 



- attention I paid to it, created an ulcer above the 

 ancle, which annoyed me for six months, and if 

 I hobbled out into the grass, a number of bete- 

 rouge would settle on the edges of the sore, and 

 increase the inflammation. 

 The Still more inconvenient, painful, and annoying- 



Chegoe. p * J 



is another little pest, called the Chegoe. It looks 

 exactly like a very small flea, and a stranger would 

 take it for one. However, in about four and 

 twenty hours, he would have several broad hints 

 that he had made a mistake in his ideas of the 

 animal. It attacks different parts of the body, 

 but chiefly the feet, betwixt the toe nails and the 

 flesh. There it buries itself, and at first causes 

 an itching not unpleasant. In a day or so, after 

 examining the part, you perceive a place about 

 the size of a pea, somewhat discoloured, rather of 

 a blue appearance. Sometimes it happens that 

 the itching is so trivial, you are not aware that 

 the miner is at work. Time, they say, makes" 

 great discoveries. The discoloured part turns 

 out to be the nest of the chegoe, containing hun- 

 dreds of eggs, which, if allowed to hatch there, 

 the young ones will soon begin to form other 

 nests, and in time cause a spreading ulcer. As 

 soon as you perceive that you have got the chegoe 

 in your flesh, you must take a needle, or a sharp 

 pointed knife, and take it out. If the nest be 

 formed, great care must be taken not to break it, 



