The most famous gnat in Paraguay, the _mbarigué_, is of the smallest size. Its extreme diminutiveness renders it invisible to the acutest eye, yet its sting is intolerably painful. These insects infest the thicker woods and the banks of streams, and are most to be feared in the evening, when the air is still. Their sting is like the point of a weapon, with which they pierce the flesh, not only when it is naked, but when defended with a slight covering. After passing some time in the woods, we returned to the town so covered with red spots, that we looked like persons in the small-pox. When in this state, the skin cannot be safely scratched with the nails, or washed with cold water. From the repeated stings of this gnat, large worms are often bred, whether originating in the pestilent sting, the poisoned humour, or some seed left by the insect, or in the gnat itself, converted into a worm within the flesh, I cannot tell. That more than one worm is never bred in one place, I know, the proof of which you shall now hear. I had observed my dog howl every now and then, scratching himself and appearing very uneasy. The Indians, when consulted on the matter, answered that he was swarming with worms. Under my inspection, they tied the dog's mouth and feet, laid him on the ground, and pressing the flesh where it appeared swelled with both hands, squeezed out the worm concealed underneath. Seventeen worms were thus taken from as many different places, all of a white colour, thicker than the seed of an apple, and about the length of a man's thumb nail. Astonished at the circumstance, I was told by the Indians that it frequently happened to themselves. And, indeed, all Paraguay knows that the minutest worms and flies have been the death of many persons. Father Felix Villa-Garzia, during his long search for the Ytatinguas in the Tarumensian woods, contracted a disorder in his eye, and was tormented by a fistula and the worms engendered therein for the rest of his life: that the heat of the sun, and various kinds of gnats were the occasion of this disorder, is well known. CHAPTER XXXII. CONTINUATION OF THE SAME SUBJECT.