188 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



**Noli me tangere." As his habits and his haunts 

 differ materially from those of every other ani- 

 mal in the forest, their interests never clash, and 

 thus he might live to a good old age, and die at 

 last in peace, were it not that his flesh is good 

 food. On this account the Indian wages per- 

 petual war against him, and as he cannot escape 

 by flight, he falls an easy prey to the poisoned 

 arrow, shot from the Indian's bow at a distance. 

 If ever he be closely attacked by dogs, he immedi- 

 ately throws himself on his back, and if he be 

 fortunate enough to catch hold of his enemy with 

 his tremendous claws, the invader is sure to pay 

 for his rashness with the loss of life. 



We will now take a view of the vampire. As 

 there was a free entrance and exit to the vampire 

 in the loft where I slept, I had many a fine oppor- 

 tunity of paying attention to this nocturnal sur- 

 geon. He does not always live on blood. When 

 the moon shone bright, and the fruit of the banana- 

 tree was ripe, I could see him approach and eat it. 

 He would also bring into the loft, from the for- 

 est, a green round fruit, something like the wild 

 guava, and about the size of a nutmeg. There 

 was something also, in the blossom of the sawarri 

 nut-tree, which was grateful to him ; for on com- 

 ing up Waratilla creek, in a moonlight night, I 

 saw several vampires fluttering round the top of 

 the sawarri tree, and every now and then the 

 blossoms, which they had broken off, fell into the 

 water. They certainly did not drop off naturally, 

 for on examining several of them, they appeared 

 quite fresh and blooming. So I concluded the 

 vampires pulled them from the tree, either to get 



