Jones : In the Tropics. 



133 



see the friendly smoke curling up from the chimney of my ranclio, 

 showing that my man Benedicto has not forgotten that we shall be 

 ready for another plate of beans after our long walk ; and as the first 

 great raindrops splash upon the thirsty leaves we step indoors, and 

 congratulate ourselves that we are " just home in time." 



And now, as I have only described the delightful side of the picture, 

 perhaps it is only fair that I should mention some of the disagreeables 

 of a day in the tropics. The first thing that will occur to you is 

 snakes. Well, there are plenty of them, no doubt, and some of them 

 are very deadly ; but for one venomoys one you will see twenty harm- 

 less ones, and all of them get out of your way as fast as they can, and 

 seem much more afraid of you than you are of them. Of course there 

 always is the danger of treading upon a snake coiled up on the ground, 

 and in this case he is sure to strike at your leg, and I always on this 

 account wear good strong boots and leather leggings when on my 

 excursions in the woods. But I can only say that, in nearly nine 

 years' residence in Brazil, such an accident never happened to me, and 

 I have never been really alarmed by a snake, excepting once when I 

 was climbing over a wall on the further side of which the ground was 

 nearly level with the top : and as my chin reached this level I saw the 

 head of a great snake about six feet long, waving backwards and 

 forwards within a foot or two of my face. I need hardly say I changed 

 my mind about getting over that wall. 



What I do object to much more than snakes is the army of 

 mosquitos which in certain districts do their best to make life a 

 burden. But even with these I have been very fortunate, and have 

 not been much molested by them in my forest life. In the towns they 

 are bad enough, and sleeping without a mosquito curtain is out of the 

 question excepting during the cool winter months. But, after all, this 

 pest is not confined to the tropics, and we need not go quite so far 

 as Brazil to meet with it. 



An insect that has given me a great amount of trouble is the 

 Carrapato — a minute tick that buries its jaws in your flesh and causes 

 most distressing irritation. These little beasts are about the size of a 

 pin's head, and hang in clusters of a thousand or so on the leaves and 

 twigs of the bushes in the campos that are inhabited by cattle, and as 

 the unwary victim touches the mass they drop upon him and spread 

 all over him. If detected at once, you can brush them off by violent 

 switching with a bunch of twigs ; but if you go on your way without 

 noticing the enemy, they will soon find their way to your skin and will 

 annoy you for days afterwards, unless you have your clothes well 



