Chap. II. 
FOREST OF AYEYROS. 
97 
moments in the street, even at a distance from their 
nests, we were sure to be overrun and severely punished, 
for the moment an ant touched the flesh, he secured 
himself with his jaws, doubled in his tail, and stung with 
all his might. When we were seated on chairs in the 
evenings in front of the house to enjoy a chat with our 
neighbours, we had stools to support our feet, the legs of 
which as well as those of the chairs, were well anointed 
with the balsam. The cords of hammocks are obliged 
to be smeared in the same way to prevent the ants from 
paying sleepers a visit. 
The inhabitants declare that the fire-ant was unknown 
on the Tapajos, before the disorders of 1835-6, and be- 
lieve that the hosts sprang up from the blood of the 
slaughtered Cabanas. They have, doubtless, increased 
since that time, but the cause lies in the depopulation 
of the villages and the rank growth of weeds in the 
previously cleared, well-kept spaces. I have already 
described the line of sediment formed on the sandy 
shores lower down the river by the dead bodies of the 
winged individuals of this species. The exodus from 
their nests of the males and females takes place at the 
end of the rainy season (June), when the swarms are 
blown into the river by squalls of wind, and subsequently 
cast ashore by the waves. I was told that this wholesale 
destruction of ant-life takes place annually, and that 
the same compact heap of dead bodies which I saw only 
in part, extends along the banks of the river for twelve 
or fifteen miles. 
The forest behind Aveyros yielded me little except 
insects, but in these it was very rich. It is not too 
VOL. II. H 
