EXPLANATORY INDEX. 483 



his horse's withers or throat, whose twisting and lashing cannot 

 shake the tormentor off ; and must be content to have himself 

 lamed, or his horses weakened to staggering and thrown out 

 of collar-work for a week, as I have seen happen more than 

 once or twice. The only method of keeping off the Vampire 

 yet employed in stables is light ; and a lamp is usually kept 

 burning there. But the negro not the most careful of men 

 is apt not to fill and trim it ; and if it goes out in the small 

 hours, the horses are pretty sure to be sucked, if there is a 

 forest near. 



" So numerous and troublesome, indeed, are the Vampires, 

 that there are pastures in Trinidad in which, at least till the 

 adjoining woods were cleared, the cattle would not fatten, or 

 even thrive ; being found, morning after morning, weak and 

 sick from the bleeding which they had endured at night." 



The coolie in question a Hindoo made very light of the 

 injury, although the toe bled considerably, and the wound 

 could scarcely be healed. Why the Vampire should always 

 select the withers of the horse and the toes of the human 

 being is a problem as yet unsolved. Neither do we know 

 how the Vampires lived when they had neither horses, cattle, 

 nor human beings to suck, any more than we know how count- 

 less millions of mosquitos, fleas, land-leeches, and other 

 noxious creatures contrive to exist without the blood of man 

 or beast. 



VANILLA (Vanilla planifolia). The plant which furnishes 

 the well known Vanilla, so much used by pastry-cooks, is a 

 curious parasitic orchid. 



It originally starts from the ground, and then ascends the 

 trunk of a tree. The stem is square, and throws out a number 

 of little rootlets, which make their way into, the bark and 

 drain the tree of its sap. 



Indeed, so entirely does it depend upon the juices of the 

 tree for its life, that if it be cut away below, so as to sever its 

 connection with the ground, it will continue to grow as well 

 as ever. Our ivy, if cut, always dies, because it derives its 



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