order, despatched a party of armed men of the National Guard to the place to make inquiries, and, if the murder should appear to be unprovoked, to retaliate. When they reached the settlement of the horde who had eaten the two men, it was found evacuated, with the exception of one girl, who had been in the woods when the rest of her people had taken flight, and whom the guards brought with them to St. Paulo. It was gathered from her, and from other Indians on the Jauarí, that the young men had brought their fate on themselves through improper conduct towards the Majeróna women. The girl, on arriving at St. Paulo, was taken care of by Senhor José Patricio, baptised under the name of Maria, and taught Portuguese. I saw a good deal of her, for my friend sent her daily to my house to fill the water-jars, make the fire, and so forth. I also gained her good-will by extracting the grub of an Œstrus fly[1] from her back, and thus cured her of a painful tumour. She was decidedly the best-humoured and, to all appearance, the kindest-hearted specimen of
- ↑ A species of Œstrus or gadfly, on the upper Amazons, fixes on the flesh of man as breeding place for its grub. I extracted five at different times from my own flesh. The first was fixed in the calf of my leg, causing there a suppurating tumour, which, being unaware of the existence of this Œstrus, I thought at first was a common boil. The tumour grew and the pain increased until I became quite lame, and then, on carefully examining the supposed boil, I saw the head of a grub moving in a small hole at its apex. The extraction of the animal was a difficult operation, it being an inch in length and of increasing breadth from head to tail, besides being secured to the flesh of the inside of the tumour by two horny hooks. An old Indian of Ega showed me the most effective way of proceeding, which was to stupefy the grub with strong tobacco juice, causing it to relax its grip in the interior, and then pull it out of the narrow orifice of the tumour by main force.
