938 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 
‘has now mounted the Congo nearly as far as the equator,* 
and was beginning already to be a well-known pest at 
Bolobo at the time of my arrival there, although as yet 
the suffering natives had hardly given it a name. The 
“jlgger,” which is scarcely bigger than a pin’s head, 
burrows under the skin of the feet and hands, and there 
in its little cell surrounds itself with a sack of eggs. Its 
presence is soon made evident by the pain and itching it 
occasions, and it is visible as a small blue point in a circle 
of white under the skin. If removed soon after discovery 
it occasions comparatively little inconvenience, but should 
you delay the eggs will hatch, and a multitude of little 
fleas will honeycomb your flesh. Neglect may cause the 
whole foot to rot away and mortify. The jigger is best 
removed by a sharply-pointed piece of wood, and care 
must be taken in so doing not to break the egg sack, lest 
the eggs escape into the wound, and, hatching there, cause 
it to fester. 7 
There are many fine cicadas on the Congo, especially 
about Stanley Pool, where one large species is eaten by the 
natives. This insect is four inches in length, and has 
“drums” near the base of the abdomen in the male. 
Many species of flies add to the small plagues of the 
Upper river. One, very little and black, sucks the skin 
until a point of blood as large as itself comes to the 
surface. - Another big dun-coloured fly gives a very 
painful, itchy bite, especially on the hand. When I was 
painting studies and sketches in oil-colours this fly 
* Since the above was written, the Jigger has rapidly advanced 
across Africa, and even now has reached Zanzibar, it is said. In 
1886, it began to be noticed on the Upper Congo, at the Stanley 
Falls, In “1888, it had reached the west coast of: ‘Tanganyika, and 
in 1892 the north coast of Lake Nyasa and the shores of the Victoria 
Nyanza. During the past year, 1894, it has spread all over Nyasa- 
land, and is now to be found on the Lower Zambezi. In a few months 
all the native postmen in the service of the British Central Africa 
Protectorate, have been more or less lamed from its attacks. It is 
always at its worst, however, during the first two or three years after 
its arrival in a new country ; then it seems to be checked, or modified — 
in its increase, or even actually lo die out altogetLer in moist 
localities. —H., te 
