248 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



lodge them, " vi et armis," an Indian boy ascended the 

 tree ; but, before he reached the nest, out flew above a 

 dozen vampires. 



I have formerly remarked that I wished 



The Vampire. , . . n T . - 



to have it in niy power to say, that 1 had 

 been sucked by the Yampire. I gave them many an 

 opportunity, but they always fought shy ; and thougli 

 they now sucked a young man of the Indian breed very 

 severely, as he was sleeping in his hammock in the 

 shed next to mine, they would have nothing to do 

 with me. His great toe seemed to have all the attrac- 

 tions. I examined it minutely as he was bathing it in 

 the river at daybreak. The midnight surgeon had 

 made a hole in it, almost of a triangular shape, and the 

 blood was then running from it apace. His hammock 

 was so defiled and stained with clotted blood, that he 

 was obliged to beg an old black woman to wash it. As 

 she was taking it down to the river side, she spread it 

 out before me, and shook her head. I remarked, that 

 I supposed her own toe was too old and tough to invite 

 the Vampire-doctor to get his supper out of it ; and she 

 answered, with a grin, that doctors generally preferred 

 young people. 



Nobody has yet been able to inform me how 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 profound sleep. I have never 

 heard of an instance of a man waking under the opera- 

 tion. 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. 

 its teeth. The teeth of the vampire are very sharp, 

 and not unlike those of a rat. If it be that 



