EATS AND OTHER ANNOYANCES. 139 



resignedly to offer ourselves as their prey. But, while 

 exhibiting a strong predilection for our natives, they left 

 us unmolested. These carnivorous and sanguineous crea- 

 tures seem to show a great partiality for some persons, 

 paying them their nightly respects, while others are en- 

 tirely free from their molestations. With the great vam- 

 pire-bat, which has been so often referred to by travellers 

 in the tropics as such a formidable enemy, we never had 

 any personal experience. They, however, abound, to the 

 terror of both man and beast. Differing from some of the 

 smaller species we have mentioned, they are contented 

 with simply taking the blood of their victim, which they 

 extract in such profuse quantities that it is hazardous to 

 sleep in the open air where one is exposed to their attacks. 

 The danger to be aj)prehended from tliese winged demons 

 is the greater, because they inflict so little pain in their 

 operations that the person or animal is not aroused from 

 slumber. Making a minute puncture, they drain by suc- 

 tion the blood from their victim, while lulling him into 

 sounder repose with the noiseless fanning of their wings. 

 It is a disputed point as to the manner in which the bat 

 makes the incision ; whether with its tongue, with the 

 shai*p nail of its thumb, or by boring with one of its long 

 canine teeth by flying around in a circle. The wound, 

 although exceedingly small, bleeds profusely; and the 

 person, upon awakening, will find himself covered with 

 the flowing blood. 



Above the Raudal de Atabaja, the river, which below 

 is contracted and encumbered with rocks, again broadens, 

 and is filled with sandy shoals and picturesque islands. 

 The wooded banks, the lowest we had seen on the Ori- 

 noco, were often overflowed, leaving dry immense playas, 

 which, when connected with the shore, obliged us to go far 

 out into the stream. Not unfrequently our buco ran 

 aground, when our natives, springing into the water, would 



