xliv ITINERAKT. 



always an early one, preferably at the first streaks of dawn, to take 

 advantage to the fullest extent possible of the cool hours. 



The insects and others that fix themselves most in one's remembrance 

 are surely the pests, such as the sand-flies and ticks ; though an 

 occasional visit of the cushis or umbrella-ants {Atta) and the hunting- 

 ants may be very troublesome. Mosquitoes are rarely met with on 

 these open elevated lands, and chigoes and dog-fleas are mostly local to 

 the settlements or sheds on the sandy wastes, especially abandoned or 

 unoccupied ones, which we were careful to avoid whenever possible, 

 preferring our camp in the open, where, even if it was not always very 

 comfortable in bad weather, it was altogether more wholesome in every 

 respect. The cushis were not troublesome to our persons, but some- 

 times to the stores and clothing, biscuits especially being reduced to 

 fragments and carried off during the night, as well as portions of soiled 

 garments, and even gantlets and helmets (pith) were liable to severe 

 damage, if not destruction. Hunting-ants were a nuisance on the rare 

 occasions when they passed through a camp among the trees, stinging 

 and biting sharply, and driving everything before them — a very un- 

 pleasant experience if it happens at night, when there may be little or 

 no light. 



The bush-ticks are a more serious trouble. They are flattened, hard 

 fellows, sn;all and large, which hold on like grim death, and are very 

 plentiful in some parts on the low bushes, from which they become 

 detached as one brushes against them. They often swarm on some of 

 the wild animals. They are intensely initating ; and, if carelessly 

 scratched or picked off, leave their sharp jaws in the skin, causing 

 great and prolonging itching, with swelling and sorene-ss, for it is 

 almost impossible to avoid rubbing or scratching — often it is done 

 quite unconsciously, — and especially if there be numbers of them about 

 oue's body, which is usually the case if-they are the small kind. As 

 they are mostly on one's clothes in the first instance, attention is only 

 drawn to them when it is too late, and at times they could only be 

 avoided by having the body thoroughly well oiled or rubbed over 

 with grease beforehand — a remedy nearly as uncomfortable as the 

 disease — while tramping perhaps in the hot sun (though it is mostly a 

 forest trouble), but this is very far from being the case, as the 

 Indians well know. In their case, however, with bare bodies except 

 for the narrow loin-cloth, the solution of the difficulty is a much easier 

 one. If the specimens be large, they can easily be caused to let go 

 their hold by the application of heat, as fi-om a live goal ; but the small 

 ones require a good dressing over the body with vaseline, kerosene oil, 

 oil of cajeput, or the so-called crab-oil, prepared from the seeds of the 

 crab- wood tree (Carapa) ; and this means waiting until camp is reached 

 and perha{)s after some hours of acute discomfort, if not actual misery. 

 Luckily it is not. a frequent experience, unless one remains in infested 

 districts. 



The sand-flies may be on occasion even more troublesome, especially 

 by rocky or sandy places near swamps or streams, where sometimes 

 they occur in great swarms. They seem to be very local in their 

 distribution and irregular in their seasons; and even places that bear 

 their name, because of their usual prevalence, may at times be found 



