A villager rested beneath a tree, suddenly afflicted by an intense itch. He reached out and plucked off a louse, carefully wrapping the tiny creature in a slip of paper before tucking it away inside a knot in the tree trunk. Two or three years later, the villager happened to pass by the tree again, and a memory of the incident surfaced. He immediately dug into the cavity, retrieved the paper, and examined its contents. He saw that the louse had completely dried out, brittle as chaff. As he idly turned the specimen over in his palm, the louse’s abdomen suddenly swelled dramatically. His palm instantly became numb and unbearably itchy, raising a large welt. Several days later, the villager was dead.