The Pomeroon Mosquito, 
189 
632. Oui* kindly hostess prepared one of the most inviting of dishes 
with the tastiest of fish, in the enjoyment of which however, we were 
most bitterly interrupted. Mr. King nad already warned me at Barima 
mouth where we were so frightfully punished by the mosquitoes, to 
bear the trouble patiently, because we should find far greater swarms of 
them at the mouth of the Pomeroon. At the time I thought this was an 
exaggeration but now, sad to say, I had to convince myself of its truth. 
On the Pomeroon these myriads of blood-suckers only appear period- 
ically: unfortunately however our arrival coincided with one of such 
occasions, a fact that Mrs. McClintock had already deplored when we 
got there. 
633. Hardly had the sun sunk below the horizon than the frightful 
bloodthirsty hordes came and besieged the windows and doors. In spite 
of all the openings being closed, as we thought, the room was only too 
rapidly filled with the threatening cannibals, and a quiet meal was not 
to be thought of. It could be truthfully said of us, ‘‘Thou feed esl them 
with the bread of tears, and givest them tears to drink in great measure." 
The species was nevertheless quite unknown to me: the Colonists call 
them ‘‘Yellow nippers." They have a blue thorax and white terminal joints 
on their feet : their sting however is more painful than that of all species 
of gnat I had hitherto experienced, possessing in conjunction with it, 
as they do, such a long sucking-proboscis that even a Russian fur would 
not be proof against it. Poor Stöckle also finding the plague unbearable 
came into our room with whining voice, swelled hands and face, and 
begged to be allowed to sit in here as the sinful beasts would eat all the 
skin off these parts if he remained outside any longer. It was quite 
evident beforehand that our sleep would be rendered as distressing as our 
dinner. As these bloodsuckers seldom fly higher than 16 feet from the 
ground Mrs. McClintock had a little room high up under the roof fitted 
as a bedroom. We had, it is true, slung our hammocks in the large room, 
and our friendly hostess had brought out everything that had any re- 
semblance at all to a mosquito-net, yet in spite of all this we were only 
too soon forced to leave our beds again, and run like mad round the 
room till morning. The sternest Puritan would have excused even Mr. 
King cursing more than once during the course of the night. All crevices 
and holes were stopped and the room so filled with steam and smoke that 
we could hardly bear it ourselves, but all in vain. To rush out into the 
open would be the same thing as jumping out of the frying pan into the 
fire, for no sooner was the door opened which was now and again neces- 
sary, owing to the smoke, than whole clouds of mosquitoes streamed in 
and like harpies, fell upon us pitiable victims. While we were thus raving 
inside the house, the swearing and cursing of our people was audible 
outside. The latter suddenly stopped, while the silence that now 
succeeded assured us that they must have discovered a certain cure which 
really turned out to be the case: they had taken refuge in the boat and 
gone out to sea beyond reach of their cannibal followers: even if they did 
not obtain comfort for the night they nevertheless secured repose. One 
of the coloured men had even climbed into the crow’s nest high up on the 
