190 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. VI. 



letting fall an imprecation or two. ' What is the mat- 

 ter, sir ? ' said I softly. ' Is anything amiss ? ' l What's 

 the matter ! ' answered he surlily, { why, the vam- 

 pires have been sucking me to death.' As soon as there 

 was light enough, I went to his hammock. ' See.,' said 

 he, ' how these infernal imps have been drawing my 

 life's blood ! ' On examining his foot, * I found the 

 vampire had tapped his great toe : there was a wound 

 somewhat less than that made by a leech, and the 

 blood was still oozing from it ; I conjectured he might 

 have lost from ten to twelve ounces. While examining 

 it, I think I put him into a worse humour, by remark- 

 ing, that a European surgeon would not have been so 

 generous as to have blooded him without making a 

 charge." * Another traveller in these countries gives 

 us, however, a somewhat different account. " On 

 waking, about four o'clock, one morning, in my hammock, 

 I was extremely alarmed at finding myself weltering in 

 congealed blood, yet without feeling any pain whatever. 

 Having started up, I rung for the surgeon. The 

 mystery, however, was soon solved, for I then found I 

 had been bitten by the vampire, or spectre of Guiana." 

 This is a monstrous bat, which sucks the blood of men 

 and cattle while they are fast asleep. even sometimes 

 till they die ; and the manner in which this is done is 

 truly wonderful : knowing, by instinct, that the per- 

 son they intend to attack is in a sound sleep, they 

 generally alight near the feet, where while the crea- 

 ture continues fanning with his enormous wings, which 

 keeps one cool he bites a piece out of the tip of one's 

 great toe, so very small, indeed, that the head of a pin 

 could scarcely be received into the wound, which is, 

 consequently, not painful ; yet, through this orifice he 

 continues to suck the blood until he is obliged to dis- 

 gorge : he then begins again ; and thus continues 

 sucking and disgorging, till he is scarcely able to fly, 

 and the sufferer has often been known to sleep from 



* Waterton's Wanderings, p. 177 



