CHAP. VII.] MYKIAPODS. 297 



nutive vermin will sometimes drop from a branch, if 

 unluckily shaken, and disperse themselves over the body, 

 each fastening on the neck, the ears, and eyelids, and 

 inserting a barbed proboscis. They burrow, with their 

 heads pressed as far as practicable under the skin, causing 

 a sensation of smarting, as if particles of red hot sand 

 had been scattered over the flesh. If torn from their 

 hold, the suckers remain behind and form an ulcer. 

 The only safeexpedient is to tolerate the agony of 

 their penetration till a drop of coco-nut oil or the 

 juice of a lime can be applied, when these little furies 

 drop off without further ill consequences. One very 

 large species, dappled with grey, attaches itself to the 

 buffaloes. 



Mites. The Trombidium tinctorum of Hermann is 

 found about Aripo, and generally over the northern pro- 

 vinces, where after a shower of rain or heavy night's 

 dew, they appear in countless myriads. It is about half 

 an inch long, like a tuft of crimson velvet, and imparts 

 its colouring matter readily to any fluid in which it may 

 be immersed. It feeds on vegetable juices, and is per- 

 fectly innocuous. Its European representative, similarly 

 tinted, and found in garden mould, is commonly called 

 the " Little red pillion." 



MYRIAPODS. The certainty with which an accidental 

 pressure or unguarded touch is resented and retorted by 

 a bite, makes the centipede, when it has taken up its 

 temporary abode within a sleeve or the fold of a dress, 

 by far the most unwelcome of all the Singhalese assail- 

 ants. The great size, too (little short of a foot in length), 

 to which it sometimes attains, renders it formidable ; and, 

 apart from the apprehension of unpleasant consequences 

 from a wound, one shudders at the bare idea of such 

 hideous creatures crawling over the skin, beneath the 

 innermost folds of one's garments. 



At the head of the Myriapods, and pre-eminent from 

 a superiorly-developed organisation, stands the genus 

 Cermatia : singular-looking objects.; mounted upon slen- 



