CHAP. VI. VAMPIRE BATS. 189 



two quadrupeds, which, although not at all formidable, 

 have yet been known to attack human beings, unpro- 

 voked, and to cause their death. We allude to swine 

 and rats. Many instances are upon record, where young 

 children, or infants in the cradle, have been attacked 

 by the domestic pig, and either mutilated or partly 

 devoured. From an animal proverbial for its brutality, 

 and which does not scruple to indulge in the unnatural 

 propensity of devouring its own young, no habits of 

 docility can be expected ; but it is inconceivable what 

 could tempt a pig to try a sort of food so totally dif- 

 ferent from its usual nourishment, either in domes- 

 tication or a state of nature. Certain, however, it is, 

 that such instances have frequently occurred. In re- 

 gard to rats, we were reading, only the other day, from 

 one of the daily papers, an authenticated statement of a 

 little boy who was disfigured for life by these loathsome 

 animals. He was sleeping in a mean lodging, with his 

 parents, who were awakened in the middle of the night 

 by his screams. With much difficulty a- light was 

 procured, when the poor little child was discovered, 

 bathed in blood, with nearly one half of his nose 

 devoured by rats. This is by no means a solitary 

 instance ; for it is well known that these animals will 

 frequently attack the extremities of sickly persons, and 

 even disfigure a corpse that has been laid near their 

 haunts. 



(205.) As a supplement to this catalogue, we should 

 not omit the unprovoked injuries occasioned by bats, 

 although there is no real danger to be expected from 

 them. Those of the tropics, as is well known, 

 are of an enormous size, and have given rise to the 

 fabulous wonders of the vampire. An eccentric, but, 

 in many respects, a veracious traveller, has thus men- 

 tioned those of South America : " Some years ago I 

 was in Demerara, with a Scotch gentleman, by name 

 Tarbet. We hung our hammocks in the thatched loft 

 of a planter's house. Next morning I heard this gen- 

 tleman muttering in his hammock, and now and then 



