THE CARRAPATO 
leopard, or some other wild animal. I was glad when we 
arrived in camp and ascertained that no one had been 
wounded. 
That night-march demoralized animals and men alike. 
Most of the animals strayed away during the night, as 
the grazing was bad where we halted. I was compelled 
to halt for two days in that miserable spot, simply de¬ 
voured by flies and mosquitoes and carrapatos, in order to 
recover them. 
If you do not know what a carrapato is, let me tell you. 
It is an insect of the order Diptera and the genus 
Mosca pupiparas, and is technically known as Melophagus 
ovinus. Its flattened, almost circular body varies in size 
from the head of an ordinary nail to the section of a good- 
sized pencil. Like the carrapatinho — its miniature re¬ 
production— it possesses wonderful clinging powers, its 
legs with hook attachment actually entering under the 
skin. Its chief delight consists in inserting its head right 
under your cutaneous tissues, wherefrom it can suck your 
blood with convenient ease. It is wonderfully adept at 
this, and while I was asleep, occasionally as many as eight 
or ten of these brutes were able to settle down comfortably 
to their work without my noticing them; and some — 
and it speaks highly for their ability — were even able 
to enter my skin (in covered parts of the body) in the 
daytime when I was fully awake, without my detecting 
them. I believe that previous to inserting the head they 
must inject some poison which deadens the sensitiveness 
of the skin. It is only after they have been at work some 
hours that a slight itching causes their detection. Then 
comes the difficulty of extracting them. If in a rash 
moment you seize the carrapato by the body and pull, its 
head becomes separated from its body and remains under 
your skin, poisoning it badly and eventually causing un¬ 
pleasant sores. Having been taught the proper process 
of extraction, I, like all my men, carried on my person a 
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