96 ANNOYANCE FROM MOSQUITOES. Chap. IV . 



some countenance to the native idea that Englishmen, live in 

 or on the water, and have no houses but ships. The cabin 

 is now a favourite breeding-place for mosquitoes, and we have 

 to support both the ship-bred and shore-bred bloodsuckers, 

 of which several species show us their irritating attentions. 

 A large brown sort, called by the Portuguese mansos (tame), 

 flies straight to its victim, and goes to work at once, as though 

 it were an invited guest. Some of the small kinds carry 

 uncommonly sharp lancets, and very potent poison. " What 

 would these insects eat, if we did not pass this way ? " 

 becomes a natural question. 



The juices of plants, and decaying vegetable matter in the 

 mud, probably form the natural food of mosquitoes, and blood 

 is not necessary for their existence. They appear so com- 

 monly at malarious spots, that their presence may be taken 

 as a hint to man to be off to more healthy localities. None 

 appear on the high lands. On the low lands they swarm in 

 myriads. The females alone are furnished with the biting ap- 

 paratus, and their number appears to be out of all proportion 

 in excess of the males. At anchor, on a still evening, they 

 were excessively annoying; and the sooner we took refuge 

 under our mosquito curtains, the better. The miserable and 

 sleepless night that only one mosquito inside the curtain can 

 cause, is so well known, and has been so often described, that 

 it is needless to describe it here. One soon learns, from 

 experience, that to beat out the curtains thoroughly before 

 entering them, so that not one of these pests can possibly 

 be harboured within, is the only safeguard against such 

 severe trials to one's tranquillity and temper. 



A few miles above Mboma we came again to the village 

 (16° 44' 30" S.), of the Chief, Tingane, the beat of whose 

 war-drums can speedily muster some hundreds of armed men. 



