SCORPIONS 161 



frequently killed small ones about an inch long at Antananarivo. 

 Examples twice that size are found in the Vavavato district ; 

 while on the shores of Bembat6ka Bay (N.W.Co.) scorpions 

 five inches long occur, and Captain Owen says that they may 

 be found, one or more, under almost every stone. He states 

 a curious fact, if indeed it is one viz. that the most destructive 

 enemy to the scorpion is the common mouse. 8 



1 " Ao ny andro mamanala, " There are the chilly days, 

 Sakambino ao an-ala ; Sustain them in the forest ; 



Raha mandeha mita rano, When they ford the rivers, 

 Mba hazony sy tantano " ; O uphold and guide them," 



etc. etc. 



Ala, at the end of the first two lines, is the native word for 

 " forest," and the native word translated here " chilly " is from 

 the damp and cold woods. 



2 Here I may notice that, in addition to the above-named 

 unpleasant inhabitants of Madagascar, we have had, within 

 the last eighteen years, a most unwelcome accession to the 

 insect pests, by the introduction of the chigoe, or " jigger," 

 which was brought by the Senegalese black troops employed in 

 the French conquest of 1895. This minute flea does not jump, 

 but runs over one's body, and burrows under the skin, chiefly in 

 the feet, but also sometimes in the hands, where it causes 

 intolerable itching, and, if not speedily removed with a needle, 

 becomes in four or five days full of eggs, and causes sores and 

 inflammation. It is a great pest to the Malagasy, the great 

 majority of whom go barefoot. But those who have boots and 

 shoes on get no exemption from the attacks of the jiggers. 



