ble to fly, and becomes
an easy prey to your avenging finger, the mosquito never seems to take
too much to prevent his easy escape on the slightest appearance of
danger, being evidently just as wide-awake when full as when empty.

Everywhere in long grass lurks the "moquim," a little red insect so
small as to be almost imperceptible, but which fastens on the legs,
causing the most intolerable itching.

There is a fly which burrows in the skin and deposits an egg, both in
human beings and animals. This produces a maggot, similar in shape to
that of the common blow-fly, but much larger, probably analogous to the
Guinea-worm.

Then there are "chigos," which burrow mostly in the soles of the feet.
You feel an intense itching, and on examination find a little thing like
a pea just under the epidermis; this is the bag containing the young
chigos, which must be carefully picked out with the point of a knife,
and the cavity left filled with tobacco ash.

Huge spiders abound, whose very appearance inspires a wholesome dread of
a nearer acquaintance, but which are harmless enough if let alone. In
fact, on board the steamers, almost every cabin is tenanted by one large
spider, whose presence is tolerated on account of his being a deadly foe
to cockroaches, which abominable creatures swarm on board. Sometimes he
is not visible for a fortnight or more at a time; but he leaves tokens
of "having been there," in the shape of the empty husks of cockroaches,
from which he has carefully abstracted the interior. These spiders have
the power of springing upon their prey from a distance, and some of them
are so large and powerful as to kill and devour small birds.

In passing through the narrow forest paths it is necessary to be on the
look-out for the wood-ticks, which are very difficult to get rid of if
once firmly attached; also for the huge black ants, an inch and a half
in length, with stings like a hornet's; and the saueba ant, without
sting, but armed with nippers like a pair of surgical bone-forceps,
which are running about everywhere. One may sometimes chance upon a
column of the dreaded "fire-ants," marching in regular military order;
and if he does, the only thing is to bolt at once, for neither man nor
beast may withstand the fire-ant and live. When at length the traveller
stops to rest, he must take care to examine the camping ground to see
that neither centipede nor scorpion is there.

Frequently both centipedes and scorp