But the cootie in the front line trenches was not altogether an enemy.
They found that the underwear was indeed death to the cootie.
There I made my first acquaintance with the now justly famous "cootie."
The worst thing about the cootie is that there is no remedy for him.
He wasn't called a cootie aboard ship, but he was the same bird.
Some of the cootie stories have become classical, like this one which was told from the North Sea to the Swiss border.
Just as he stooped, a shell whizzed over where his head would have been if he had not gone after the cootie.
A soldier was going over the top when one of his cootie friends bit him on the calf.
The tale is even told of cootie fights during long, rainy winter evenings which must be spent indoors.
The cootie, or the "chat" as he is called by the officers, is the common body louse.
