158 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



into stone. Suppose yourself in hopeless sorrow, 

 begin with a high loud note, and pronounce, "ha, 

 ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ' ' each note lower and lower, 

 till the last is scarcely heard, pausing a moment 

 or two betwixt every note, and you will have 

 some idea of the moaning of the largest goat- 

 sucker in Demerara. 



Four other species of the goatsucker articulate 

 some words so distinctly, that they have received 

 their names from the sentences they utter, and 

 absolutely bewilder the stranger on his arrival in 

 these parts. The most common one sits down close 

 by your door, and flies and alights three or four 

 yards before you, as you walk along the road, 

 crying, "A¥lio-are-you, who-who-who-are-you?" 

 Another bids you, "Work-away, work- work- work- 

 away." A third cries, mournfully, "Willy-come- 

 go. Willy- Willy- Willy-come-go. ' ' And high up in 

 the country, a fourth tells you to "Whip-poor- 

 Will. Whip-whip-whip-poor- Will. ' ' 



You will never persuade the negro to destroy 

 these birds or get the Indian to let fly his arrow 

 at them. They are birds of omen and reverential 

 dread. Jumbo, the demon of Africa, has them 

 under his command; and they equally obey the 

 Yabahou, or Demerara Indian Devil. They are 

 the receptacles for departed souls, who come back 

 again to earth, unable to rest for crimes done in 

 their days of nature; or they are expressly sent 

 by Jumbo, or Yabahou, to haunt cruel and hard- 

 hearted masters, and retaliate injuries received 

 from them. If the largest goatsucker chance to 

 cry near the white man's door, sorrow and grief 

 will soon be inside; and they expect to see 



