With a view to self-protection I have been reading Dr. Howard's book,
"Mosquitoes." I am persecuted by mosquitoes. There are several species in
my neighborhood; but only one of them is a serious torment,-- a tiny needly
thing, all silver-speckled and silver-streaked. The puncture of it is sharp
as an electric burn; and the mere hum of it has a lancinating quality of
tone which foretells the quality of the pain about to come,-- much in the
same way that a particular smell suggests a particular taste. I find that
this mosquito much resembles the creature which Dr. Howard calls Stegomyia
fasciata, or Culex fasciatus: and that its habits are the same as those of
the Stegomyia. For example, it is diurnal rather than nocturnal and becomes
most troublesome in the afternoon. And I have discovered that it comes from
the Buddhist cemetery,-- a very old cemetery,-- in the rear of my garden.



Dr. Howard's book declares that, in order to rid a neighborhood of
mosquitoes, it is only necessary to pour a little petroleum, or kerosene
oil, into the stagnant water where they breed. Once a week the oil should
be used, "at the rate of once ounce for every fifteen square feet of
water-surface, and a proportionate quantity for any less surface." ...But
please to consider the conditions in my neighborhood!


I have said that my tormentors come from the Buddhist cemetery. Before
nearly every tomb in that old cemetery there is a water-receptacle, or
cistern, called mizutame. In the majority of cases this mizutame is simply
an oblong cavity chiseled in the broad pedestal supporting the monument;
but before tombs of a costly kind, having no pedestal-tank, a larger
separate tank is placed, cut out of a single block of stone, and decorated