The Red Cloud chief., 1880-04-01

The Paradise u Insects.
None but those who hsve Travelled on
the Upper Amazons can have any idea
II the number and voncisy % the insec;
iorments which work their wicked viii
on the bodies Of the u~nforsunafe< tx
posed to their attacks. The s.sancudos,"
or small sand-hies, form by far the mos;
important section. In the villages, round
which the forest il cleared away for
ON distance, the sancudos are gener-
ally pretty quiet during the dav. e1cep;
where darkness prevails: there they are
ever busy, and are = perfect plague.
The triumphant note Of a sancudo which
has made his wsy under your curtains
Is more annoying than even his bite /:
and should you have been careless in
getting into bed, and been accompanied
By two or three Of these blood suckers.
we viii defy you 10 sleep until you have
exterminaied them
In the fores; and on the river the 4 n
cudos are always busy. Men sometimes
get into the vessels tops, and there COW
er Themselves with sacks, n~otwithstand-
ing the heat, rather than remain below
exposed TO their attacks. Fortunately
they can not stand a current Of air, and
30 when under way the vessel is CON-
paratirely free from them, but when n
anchor these pests are something awful.
To get rid If them is next TO impossible.
Creosote viii keep them on, but the
remedy Is a. bad as the disease. White
wash win drive them away, but when
dry its power ceases; and the only
thing to do is either 10 cover all exposed
parts Of the body with black pigment a
Ia mode Indienne, or else 10 "grin and
bear it."
Scarcely less troublesome than the
sancudos are the mosquitoes, although
they have the negative merit Of biting
only by day. They are minute Great
ures, not much larger than a pins head /;
they prefer the backs Of the hands to
any other spots for their attacks. But,
unlike the sancudo, which, when I'M
disturbed, gorges himself until unable
to fy, and becomes an easy prey to
your avenging finger, the mosquito
never seems to take too much to prevent
his escape on the slightest appearance
Of dangar, being evidently just as wide
awake when full as when empty.
Everywhere in long grass turks 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-hy, but much larger,
probably analogous TO the Guinea-worm.
Then there are T" chigos," which bur-
row mostly in the sOles Of the feet. You
feel an intense itching, and on exami-
nation find q little thing like a pea just
under the epidermis: this is the bag
containing the young chigos, which
nus be carefully picked out with the
point of a knife, and the cavity left
filled with tobacco ash.
Huge spiders abound, whose very APP
pearance 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 shaving been there"
in the shape of the empty husks of
cockroaches. from which he has care
fully distracted 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 at
tached; also for the huge black ants,
an inch and a half in length, with
stings like a hornets; and the sauba
ant, without sting, but armed with nip
pers like a pair Of surgical bone-for.
ceps, which are running about every.
where. One may sometimes chance
upon a column of the dreaded "fre.
ants" marching in regular military
OTutI , anu IL uc uocss TIC oilN tuiHS IL
TO bolt at once, for neither man NJ
beast may Withstand the fire-ant and
live. When at length the traveller
stops TO rest, he must take a r to ex
anime the camping ground TO see thal
neither centipede nor scorpion is there
Frequently both centipedes and scor
pions are found on the steamers, intro
duced, no doubt, in the wood used fol
fuel. One day, while the writer wa,
watching the hands taking wood from
canoes longside, from one of the log
pitched on board was dislodged q scor
pion, which fell on the naked left arm
of a man keeping tally at the gangway
Astonished by his sudden flight through
the air, the animal remained perfect,
still. The mar never moved a muscle
and quietly raising his right hand
tipped it away with his fingers an,
thumb. 1t was very neatly and COOL,
done; and he thus escaped a sting
which he no doubt would have receive,
had he tried to brush it hastily away