184 THE VAMPYRE. 



THE VAMPYRE, OR SPECTRE BAT OF SOUTH 

 AMERICA, 



Is a most formidable and dangerous creature, and although 

 not remarkable either for size or strength, is the common pest of 

 men and animals, in those parts where it abounds ; for it destroys 

 every thing that has life, which it finds asleep and exposed to its 

 attack. It sleeps in the day, and, according to Ulloa, comes 

 abroad in the evening, when such multitudes make their appear- 

 ance as to cover the towns and villages with a widely extended 

 canopy. 



The vampyre is the most terrible and dexterous phlebotomist 

 in Nature. Its nose is long, and has at the end a membrane of a 

 conical form, somewhat resembling a horn^ but flexible, which 

 not only gives it a hideous and disgusting aspect, but also fur- 

 nishes it with a formidable and dangerous weapon, which it in- 

 sinuates with inconceivable dexterity into the veins of any crea- 

 ture it finds asleep, without giving it sufficient pain to awake it. 

 It is therefore extremely dangerous to sleep abroad in the coun- 

 tries where the vampyre is common, as it sucks the blood with 

 such avidity, that persons attacked by it, frequently pass from a 

 sound sleep to their eternal repose. 



Captain Stedman, during his stay in Surinam, was attacked 

 in his sleep by a vampyre bat, as appears in the following extract 

 from his narrative : " I cannot forbear," says the captain, " re- 

 lating a singular circumstance respecting myself, viz. that on 

 waking about four o'clock one morning in my hammock, I was 

 extremely alarmed at finding myself weltering in congealed 

 blood, without feeling any pain whatever. Having started up, I 

 rang for the surgeon. The mystery, however, was, that I had 

 been bitten by the vampyre, or spectre, of Guiana. Having ap- 

 plied tobacco-ashes as the best remedy, and washed the gore 

 from myself and my hammock, I observed several small heaps 

 of concealed blood all round the place where I had lain, upon 

 the ground ; on examining which, the surgeon judged that I had 

 lost twelve or fourteen ounces during the night." 



The vampyre is equally destructive to animals, as to the hu- 

 man race ; for, according to M. de Condamine, it has, in many 

 parts of South America, destroyed all the cattle introduced into 

 the country by the settlers from Europe. 



We have now exhibited to view, the most remarkable varieties 

 of this curious species, which seem to link the quadruped with 

 the volatile part of the creation. It would be useless, perhaps 

 even impossible, to display all the distinguishing characteristics 

 of the various tribes, which exist in every country, and are all 



