184 WANDERINGS IN 



THIRD hammock to tempt this winged surgeon, expecting* 

 that he would be there ; but it was all in vain ; 



the vampire never sucked me, and I could never 

 account for his not doing so, for we were in- 

 habitants of the same loft for months together. 

 The Arma- The Armadillo is very common in these forests ; 



dillo. . . 



he burrows in the sand-hills like a rabbit. As 

 it often takes a considerable time to dig him out 

 of his hole, it would be a long and laborious 

 business to attack each hole indiscriminately with- 

 out knowing whether the animal were there or 

 not. To prevent disappointment, the Indians 

 carefully examine the mouth of the hole, and put 

 a short stick down it. Now if, on introducing 

 the stick, a number of mosquitos come out, the 

 Indians know to a certainty that the armadillo 

 is in it : wherever there are no mosquitos in the 

 hole, there is no armadillo. The Indian having 

 satisfied himself that the* armadillo is there, by 

 the mosquitos which come out, he immediately 

 cuts a long and slender stick, and introduces 

 it into the hole : he carefully observes the line 

 the stick takes, and then sinks a pit in the sand 

 to catch the end of it : this done, he puts it farther 

 into the hole, and digs another pit, and so on, 

 till at last he comes up with the armadillo, which 

 had been making itself a passage in the sand 

 till it had exhausted all its strength through pure 

 exertion. I have been sometimes three quarters 

 of a day in digging out one armadillo, and obliged 



