302 WANDERINGS IN 



FOURTH Nobody has yet been able to inform me how 



JOURNEY. * 



-it is that the vampire manages to draw such a 

 large quantity of blood, generally from the toe, 

 and the patient, all the time, remains in a pro- 

 found sleep. I have never heard of an instance 

 of a man waking under the operation. On the 

 contrary, he continues in a sound sleep, and at 

 the time of rising, his eyes first inform him, that 

 there has been a thirsty thief on his toe. 



iu teeth. The teeth of the vampire are very sharp, and 

 not unlike those of a rat. If it be that he inflicts 

 the wound with his teeth, (and he seems to have 

 no other instruments,) one would suppose that 

 the acuteness of the pain would cause the person 

 who is sucked, to awake. We are in darkness 

 in this matter ; and I know of no means by which 

 one might be enabled to throw light upon it. 

 It is to be hoped that some future wanderer 

 through the wilds of Guiana, will be more for- 

 tunate than I have been, and catch this nocturnal 

 depredator in the fact. I have once before men- 

 tioned that I killed a vampire which measured 

 thirty-two inches from wing to wing extended ; 

 but others, which I have since examined, have 

 generally been from twenty to twenty-six inches 

 in dimension. 



The Kara- The large humming-bird, called by the In- 



bimiti. ,. -, . . ... . ., ., , 



dians Karabimiti, invariably builds its nest in the 

 slender branches of the trees which hang over 

 the rivers and creeks. In appearance, it is like 



