Strangers coming here are also subject to the _sarna_, as well as the natives, which is an irruption attended with considerable irritation and itching about the legs, feet, and ancles, and becomes troublesome unless great care is taken, by washing them every night with warm water and _cachaça_. The _bicho_ is also another annoyance peculiar to the climate, ever filling the air, the water, and the earth with new and infinite animation. This insect generates in the dust and sand, and penetrating the foot not larger than an atom at first, increases to the size of a small white worm, giving considerable pain till extracted; in doing which, it is necessary to remove all the little eggs which it leaves behind, otherwise they would soon acquire life, and, if allowed, eat away the foot. I have seen numbers of negroes, whose legs and feet, with the aid of the _sarna_, have been literally destroyed, and almost corroded away by them. The little black boys sitting down, and extracting them from their feet with a pin, reminded me of the celebrated bronze figure of a boy, in the attitude of taking a thorn from his foot, which occupies a place in the Salle de Laocoon, at the Louvre. In traversing the woods, the _carrapato_, with which the branches frequently swarm, is an annoying and dangerous enemy. It is similar in appearance to a sheep-tick, and introduces the head and main part of the body into the flesh, when, if taken away forcibly, it leaves a disagreeable wound. One of these vermin penetrated the leg of the King, and, being injudiciously forced away, caused a wound, which has been occasionally troublesome to his Majesty ever since. The application of oil is deemed an efficacious mode of removing them; but I found this ineffectual, after using it copiously for about half an hour on one that was nearly buried in the ear of a negro-boy.