TORMENT OCCASIONED BY THEM. 197 



the night upon the bare earth, protected from the 

 mosquitoes by creeping into a kind of sack, sufficient 

 only for the covering of a single person." In a note, 

 he adds, that the Cossacks sometimes scoop a hollow 

 in the ancient tombs, or construct a shed of reeds in 

 these places, and light large fires in order to fiU the 

 area ^vith smoke ; flying to their suffocating ovens, 

 in the most sultry weather, to escape the mosquitoes. 

 Yet, notwithstanding all these precautions, many of 

 the soldiers stationed along the Kuban died in con- 

 sequence of mortification produced by the bites of 

 these insects.* Humboldt informs us, in speaking 

 of one district in the equinoctial regions of the New 

 Continent, "that the superior of the Missions, when 

 he would make the lay brothers return to their duty, 

 menaces sometimes to send them to Esmeralda ; that 

 is, say the monks, to be condemned to moschettoes ; 

 to be devoured by these buzzing flies, with which 

 God has peopled the earth to chastise man."t Else- 

 where, the same philosophical writer remarks, — " It 

 were to be wished, that a learned Entomologist could 

 study, on the spot, the specific differences of these 

 noxious insects, which, in spite of their Httleness, 

 act an important part in the economy of nature. 



* Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa. By Edward Daniel Clarke, 

 LL.D. Second ed. p. 387. 

 t Personal Narrative, vol. v. p. 508. 



