SOUTH AMERICA. 145 



lower and lower, till the last is scarcely heard. 8EC01(D 



JOURNEY. 



pausing a moment or two betwixt every note, and 



you will have some idea of the moaning of the 

 largest goatsucker in Demerara. 



Four other species of the goatsucker articulate 

 some words so distinctly, that they have re- 

 ceived their names from the sentences they utter, 

 and absolutely bewilder the stranger on his 

 arrival in these parts. The most common one 

 sits down close by your door, and flies, and 

 alights three or four yards before you, as you 

 walk along the road, crying, " Who-are-you, who- 

 who-who-are-you." Another bids you, " Work- 

 away, work-work-work-away." A third cries, 

 mournfully, " Willy-come-go. Willy- Willy- Willy- 

 come-go." And high up in the country, a fourth 

 tells you to " Whip-poor- Will. Whip-whip-whip- 

 poor-Will." 



You will never persuade the negro to destroy 

 these birds, or get the Indian to let fly his arrow 

 at them. They are birds of omen, and reverential 

 dread. Jumbo, the demon of Africa, has them 

 under his command ; and they equally obey the 

 Yabahou, or Demerara Indian devil. They are 

 the receptacles for departed souls, who come back 

 again to earth, unable to rest for crimes done in 

 their days of nature ; or they are expressly sent 

 by Jumbo., or Yabahou, to haunt cruel and hard- 

 hearted masters, and retaliate injuries received 

 from them. If the largest goatsucker chance to 



