VAMPIRES. 129 



I was woke that morning, as often before and afterwards, 

 by a clacking of stones ; and, looking out, saw in the dusk a 

 Negro squatting, and hammering, with a round stone on a fiat 

 one, the coffee which we were to drink in a quarter of an 

 hour. It was turned into a tin saucepan ; put to boil over a 

 firestick between two more great stones ; clarified, by some 

 cunning island trick, with a few drops of cold water; and then 

 served up, bearing, in fragrance and taste, the same relation 

 to average English coffee as fresh things usually do to stale 

 ones, or live to dead. After which " mafiana," and a little 

 quinine for fear of fever, we lounged about waiting for break- 

 fast, and for the arrival of the horses from the village. 



Then we inspected a Coolie's great toe, which had been 

 severely bitten by a vampire in the night. And here let me 

 say, that the popular disbelief of vampire stories is only 

 owing to English ignorance, and disinclination to believe any 

 of the many quaint things which John Bull has not seen, 

 because he does not care to see them. If he comes to these 

 parts, he must be careful not to leave his feet or hands out 

 of bed without mosquito curtains ; if he has good horses, 

 he ought not to leave them exposed at night without wire- 

 gauze round the stable-shed a plan which, to my surprise 

 I never saw used in the West Indies. Otherwise, he will be 

 but too likely to find in the morning a triangular bit cut out 

 of his own flesh, or even worse, out of his horse's withers or 



VOL. II. K 



