Note 15 — Chapter XII · RAMBLES IN THE UPPER FOREST

Here I may notice that, in addition to the above-named unpleasant inhabitants of Madagascar, we have had, within the last eighteen years, a most unwelcome accession to the insect pests, by the introduction of the chigoe, or “jigger,” which was brought by the Senegalese black troops employed in the French conquest of 1895. This minute flea does not jump, but runs over one’s body, and burrows under the skin, chiefly in the feet, but also sometimes in the hands, where it causes intolerable itching, and, if not speedily removed with a needle, becomes in four or five days full of eggs, and causes sores and inflammation. It is a great pest to the Malagasy, the great majority of whom go barefoot. But those who have boots and shoes on get no exemption from the attacks of the jiggers.