150 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



examining his foot, I found the vampire had tapped 

 his great toe : there was a wound somewhat less than 

 that made by a leech ; the blood was still oozing from 

 it y I conjectured he might have lost from ten to twelve 

 ounces of blood. Whilst examining it, I think I put 

 him into a worse humour by remarking, that a European 

 surgeon would not have been so generous as to have 

 blooded him without making a charge. He looked up 

 in my face, but did not say ^ word : I saw he was of 

 opinion that I had better have spared this piece of ill- 

 timed levity. 



Species of ^-^^ ^^^^ puuishinent of this 



lai^geredAnt. gQQ(j gentleman in the river Paumaron. 

 The next night he was doomed to undergo a kind of 

 ordeal unknown in Europe. There is a species of large 

 red ant in Guiana, sometimes called Eanger, sometimes 

 Coushie. These ants march in millions through the 

 country, in compact order, like a regiment of soldiers ; 

 they eat up every insect in their march; and if a house 

 obstruct their route, they do not turn out of the way, 

 but go quite through it. Though they sting cruelly 

 when molested, the planter is not ^orry to see them in 

 his house ; for it is but a passing visit, and they destroy 

 every kind of insect vermin that had taken shelter 

 under his roof. 



jN'ow, in the British plantations of Guiana, as well as 

 in Europe, there is always a little temple dedicated to 

 the goddess Cloacina. Our dinner had chiefly consisted 

 of crabs, dressed in rich and different ways. Paumaron 

 is famous for crabs, and strangers who go thither con- 

 sider them the greatest luxury. The Scotch gentleman 

 made a very capital dinner on crabs ; but this change 

 of diet was productive of unpleasant circumstances ; he 



