LETTER XL. 



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 appearance 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 re- 

 sembling a horn, but flexible, which not only gives it 

 a hideous disgusting aspect, but also furnishes it with a 

 formidable and dangerous weapon, which it insinuates 

 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 countries 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 an 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, " relating a singular cir- 

 cumstance 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 mys- 

 tery, however, was that I had been bitten by the 

 vampyre, or spectre of Guiana. Having applied to- 

 bacco ashes as the best remedy, and washed the gore 

 from myself and my hammock, I observed several 

 small heaps of congealed blood a.15 round the place 

 where I had lain, upon tht> 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 human race; for according to M. de Conda- 

 mine, it has in many parts of South America, destroy- 

 ed all the cattle introduced into the country by the 

 settlers from Europe. 



