33i 
The Teee-Eiiog as Weather Pkophet. 
under the eyes aud iuto both corners of the mouth : 1 have never seen 
them on other animals. To these pests I must still add the larva of 
some sort of dipterous insect, the Mosquito-worm of the Colonists, 
Gusano peludo of the t-lpaniardS;, whieh is generally dreaded. This 
insect lays its eggs under the skin where its larva quickly emerges and 
reaches a considerable size. .When full-grown the mosquito- worm has a 
length of quite half-au-ineh : the body is somewhat thickened in the 
middle: it is blaek-ringed in front. In the centre of the swelling which 
the larva occupies is the small unelosed opening which the female made 
with her ovipositor-sheath: it is only witli extreme pressure on both 
sides of the tumour, and the oonseq.öent dilatation of the opening that 
it is post^ible to get the larva out. and then with iiidescribal)le agony.* 
As I never slept at night without pants it was all the uiore inexplicable 
to me how the insect found its way to my thighs, on which there soon 
developed eight such bumps. IN'ippig, in the course of his Travels, 
mentions a ]ar\a tliat must be especially plentiful in Maynas, and there 
called Subja-ciH-u : from the desciiption given this appears to be identical 
with the mosquito-worm. In spite of wearing long trousers both day and 
niglit, 1 was nevertheless unable to pi'oteet myself from these frightful 
pests, and certainly a similar precaution would not have saved the 
Indians in Maynas. Stöckle and Smith l emained just as little exempt 
from them as I did. 
806. A loud belloAv, very like that of a cow, and repeated at shorfc 
and reguhir intervals, had already on the second night awakened me 
several times out of my slee]): the noise being absolutely foreign to me, 
I made the wildest conjectures as to its source of origin. I waited with 
impatience for tlie returning residents, but when in reply to my enquiry 
the peof)]e told me it was a frog, I thought they wanted to fool me. In 
spite of my doubts the Caril)s stuck to it that it was the Konobo-aru, 
which lives in a particular kind of tree, with hollow trunk that is tilled 
with water. As they were verA' anxious for me to confirm this with my own 
eyes, we quickly made our way down to the near foi-est on the lowland 
and soon stood in front of a tall Tiliarea with large leaves, which I had 
never seen before, and on closer examination turned out to be a new 
geims, to whicli Dr. Klotzsch has applied the name Bodelsclnrinffia 
in honour of our magnanimous and meritorious Minister, von 
Bodelschwing. The peculiar Idossoms of the BodrJsrhirhifiia 
Dincroplivlla possess a verv pleasant perfume, and the lar^e leaves Hve 
the beautiful tree an imposing appearance. I have only found it on the 
Pomeroon and P>ararna. A peculiaritv of the tree is that the trunk when 
it reaches a certain size becomes hollow. One of the Indians climbed 
the tree to stuff a round knot-hole that was about 40 feet up the 
trunk, after which the other« set to work and cut it down. The hollow 
trunk was filled with a considerable quantitv^ of water in which we did 
not aetuallv find the disturbers of the peace but on the other hand dis- 
covered twentv tadpoles in the first staffe of their development. Our 
search for the male or female was for the time being fruitless, and I had 
* I have seen the local application of tobacco-juice on the opening result in the expul.sion of 
the worm. — (Kd ) I'he " Mos(juito woi-ni " is the hiT va of Ttermaltihin hominis w D piinnoven- 
tris^ infection with which is still fairly common iu British Guiana, (F.G.K,) 
