VAMPIRE OF INDIA 69 



lodged from their feeding grounds about his head 

 and neck, and, trying to settle about his rear parts, 

 were driven back again by the swinging of his tail. 

 Then I should say that ear is just a fan. How 

 significant it is that among the emblems of royalty 

 in the East the three chiefest are an umbrella-bearer, 

 two men who stand behind and swing great punkahs 

 modelled on the elephant's ear, and two others 

 carrying yak's tails wherewith to scare the flies 

 from the royal person ! The elephant is a rajah ! 



There is another mysterious ear which is a 

 stumbling-block to the simple theory-monger. It is 

 in fashion among a tribe of bats to which belongs 

 the so-called vampire of India. This monster is 

 fond of coming into your bedroom at midnight 

 through the open windows, but not to suck your 

 blood, for it has little in common with the true 

 vampire of South America. It brings its dinner 

 with it and hangs from the ceiling, " feeding like 

 horses when you hear them feed." You hear its 

 jaws working — crunch, crunch, crunch, but feel too 

 drowsy to get up and expel it. 



When you get up in the morning there on your 

 clean dressing table, just below the place where it 

 ' hung, are the bloody remains of a sparrow, or the 

 crumbs of a tree-frog. The servants will tell you 

 that the sparrow was killed and eaten by a rat, but 

 if you rise softly next night when you hear the sound 

 of feeding, and shut the windows, you will find a 

 goblin hanging from the ceiling in the morning, 



