586 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



a stranger would take it for one. However, in about four and twenty hours he would 

 have several broad hints that he had made a mistake in his ideas of the animal. It 

 attacks different parts of the body, but chiefly the feet, betwixt the toe-nails and the 

 flesh. There it buries itself and causes an itching, which at first is not unpleasant, 

 but after a few days gradually increases to a violent pain. At the same time a small 

 white tumor, about the size of a pea, and with a dark spot in the centre, rises under 

 the skin. The tumor is the rapidly growing nest of the chegoe, the spot the little 

 plague itself. And now it is high time to think of its extirpation, an operation in 

 which the negro women are very expert. Gently removing with a pin the skin from 

 the little round white ball or nest, precisely as we should peel an orange, and pressing 

 the flesh all round, they generally succeed in squeezing it out without breaking, and 

 then fill the cavity with snuff or tobacco, to guard against the possibility of a fresh 

 colony being formed by some of the eggs remaining in the wound. New comers are 

 particularly subject to these creatures. "Every evening," says Waterton, "before 

 sundown, it was part of my toilet to examine my feet and see that they were clear 

 of chegoes. Now and then a nest would escape the scrutiny, and then I had to smart 

 for it a day or two after." If the prompt extraction of the chegoe's nests is neglected, 

 the worm-like larvae creep out, continue the mining operations of their parent, and 

 produce a violent inflammation, which may end in the mortification of a limb. It not 

 unfrequently happens that negroes from sheer idleness or negligence in the first in- 

 stance have been lamed for life and become loathsome to the sight. In such a state, 

 these miserable objects are incurable, and death only puts an end to their sufferings. 



A still more dangerous plague, peculiar to the coast of Guinea and the interior of 

 tropical Africa, to Arabia, and the adjacent countries, is the Filaria medinensis of 

 Linnaeus. This dreadful worm comes to the herbage in the morning dew, from whence 

 it pierces the skin, and enters the feet of such as walk without shoes, causing the most 

 painful irritations, succeeded by violent inflammation and fever. The natives extract 

 it with the greatest caution by twisting a piece of silk round one extremity of the 

 body and withdrawing it very gently. When we consider that this insidious worm is 

 frequently twelve feet long, although not thicker than a horse-hair, we can readily 

 imagine the difficulty of the operation. If, unfortunately, the animal should break, 

 the part remaining under the skin grows with redoubled vigor, and frequently occa- 

 sions a fatal inflammation. 



Among the plagues of Guiana and the West Indies is a little insect in the grass 

 and on the shrubs, which the French call Bete-rouge. It is of a beautiful scarlet 

 color, and so minute that you must bring your eye close to it before you can perceive 

 it. It abounds most in the rainy season. Its bite causes an intolerable itching, which, 

 according to Schomburgk, who writes from personal experience, drives by day the 

 perspiration of anguish from every pore, and at night makes one's hammock resemble 

 the gridiron on which Saint Lawrence was roasted. The best way to get rid of the 

 plague is to rub the part aflfected with lemon-juice or rum. You must be careful not 

 to scratch it," says Waterton. *' If you do so and break the skin, you expose your- 

 self to a sore. The first year I was in Guiana the bete-rouge and my own want of 

 knowledge, and, I may add, the little attention I paid to it, created an ulcer above 

 the ankle which annoyed me for six months." 



The blood-sucking Ticks are also to be classed among the intolerable nuisances of 



