jigger (_Pulex penetrans_), unknown in my day upon the West African coast.
It has killed men by causing gangrenous sores. From 'Tabon,' [Footnote:
'Tabon' is evidently corrupted from the popular greeting ''Sta bom?' (Are
you well? How d'e do?)] the Brazil, it crept over to São Paulo de Loanda,
and thence it spread far and wide up and down coast, and deep into the
interior. This fact suggests that there may be truth in the theory which
makes the common flea of India an immigrant from Europe.

At 1 P.M. we resumed our way along the beach, under sunshine tempered by
the 'smokes.' These mists, however, are now clearing away for the
tornado-season, and 'insolation' will become more decided. We ran by
sundry little bush-villages: their names will be found in my companion's
careful route-survey. I shall notice only those which showed something
notable.

There is sameness in the prospect, which, however, does not wholly lack
interest. Soon after dawn the village urchins begin disporting themselves
among the breakers and billows upon broken bits of boat, while their
fathers throw the cast-net nearer shore. The brown-black pigs and piglets
root up the wet sand for shell-fish; and, higher up, the small piebald
cattle loiter in the sun or shade. From afar the negro-groups are not
unpicturesque in their bright red and brimstone yellow sheets, worn like
Roman togas. A nearer view displays bridgeless, patulous noses, suggesting
a figure of [Symbol: Figure-8 on its side.]; cheek-bones like molehills,
and lips splayed out in the manner of speaking-trumpets: often, indeed,
the face is a mere attachment to the devouring-apparatus. Throughout the
day sexes and ages keep apart. The nude boys perch upon stones or worn-out
canoes. Their elders affect the shade, men on one side of the village and
women on the other. All the settlements are backed by cocoa-trees in lines
and clumps. Those who view Africa biliously compare them with hearse-plumes;