THE CHIGOE, 
315 
causing any pain. There is a slight irritation, rather pleasing 
than otherwise, to which a novice pays no attention, but which 
puts an experienced person on his guard at once. 
The male Chigoe is innocent of causing any direct injury to 
man, the female being the cause of all the mischief. As soon 
as she is settled, her abdomen begins to swell until it becomes 
quite globular, and of great comparative size, and containing a 
vast quantity of tiny eggs. Pain is now felt by the victim, who 
generally has recourse to the skilful old dames, who have a kind 
of monopoly of extracting Chigoe ‘ nests.’ With a needle, they 
carefully work round the globular body of the buried insect, 
taking great care not to break it, as if a single egg remains in 
the wound, all the trouble is wasted. By degrees they gently 
eject the intruder, and exhibit the unbroken sac of eggs with 
great glee. To prevent accidents, however, the wound is filled 
with a little Scotch snuff, which certainly causes rather a sharp 
smarting sensation, but effectually destroys any egg or young 
insect that may perchance have escaped notice. 
Europeans and natives of the better caste escape easily 
enough, because they always take warning by the first intima- 
tion of a Chigoe’s attack, and generally succeed in killing her 
before she has succeeded in burying herself. Moreover, the 
shoes and stockings of civilised man protect his feet, and the 
gloves guard his hands, so that the insect does not find many 
I opportunities of attacking the white man. 
But the negroes, and especially the children, suffer terribly 
from the Chigoe. Children never are very apt at sacrificing the 
present to the future, and the negro child is perhaps in this 
particular the least apt of all humanity. The Chigoe is in con- 
sequence seldom disturbed until it has made good its entrance, 
and even then would not be mentioned by the child, on account 
of the pain which he knows is in store for him. But the expe- 
rienced eyes of the matrons are constantly directed to the feet 
of their children, and if one of them is seen to hold his toes off 
the ground as he walks, he is immediately captured and carried 
off to the operator, uttering dismal yells of apprehension. 
He certainly has good reason for his fears. The Chigoe nest 
