244 
THE TAMPAN. 
and, now that they are gone from this lower sphere, I could 
not help wishing that thoso our Homan Catholic fellow- 
Christians had felt it to be their duty to give the people 
the Bible, to be a light to thoir feet when tho good men 
themselves wore gono. 
When sleeping in tho house of the commandant, an 
insect, well known in the southern countiy by the name 
tampan, bit my foot. It is a kind of tick, and chooses by 
preference the parts betweon the fingers or toes for inflict- 
ing its bite. It is seen from tho size of a pin’s head to that 
of a pea, and is common in all the native huts in this coun- 
try. It sucks the blood until quite full, and is then of a 
dark-bluo color, and its skin so tough and yielding that it 
is impossible to burst it by any amount of squeezing with 
tho fingers. I had felt tho effects of its bite in former 
years, and eschewed all native huts ovor after; but, as I 
was hero again assailed in a European house, I shall detail 
tho effects of tho bite. These arc a tingling sensation of 
mingled pain and itching, which commences ascending the 
limb until the poison imbibed reaches tho abdomen, where 
it soon causes violent vomiting and purging. Where these 
effects do not follow, as wo found afterward at Tete, fever 
sets in; and I was assured by intelligent Portuguese there 
that death has sometimes boon tho result of this fever. 
Tho anxiety my friends at Tete manifested to keep my 
men out of the reach of tho tampans of tho village made it 
evident that they had seen cause to dread this insignificant 
insect. Tho only inconvcnienco I aftorward suffered from 
this bite was tho continuance of tho tingling sensation it 
the point bitten for about a week. 
May 12. — As we wero about to start this morning, tho 
commandant, Senhor Arscnio, provided bread and meat 
most bountifully for my use on tho way to the noxt st:V' 
tion, and sent two militia-soldiors as guides, instead of our 
Oassange corporal, who left us here. About mid-day we 
asked for shelter from the sun in the houso of Senhor Mel- 
lot, at Zangu ; and, though I was unablo to sit and engage 
