SOUTH AMERICA. 



11 



prudent to return, the goat remained in the same place First 



Journey. 



where he had killed it ; it had begun to putrefy, and the 



vultures had arrived that morning to claim the savoury- 

 morsel. 



At the close of day, the vampires leave the hollow The 



vampire. 



trees, whither they had fled at the morning's dawn, and 

 scour along the river's banks in quest of prey. On 

 waking from sleep, the astonished traveller finds his 

 hammock all stained with blood. It is the vampire that 

 hath sucked him. Not man alone, but every unprotected 

 animal, is exposed to his depredations ; and so gently 

 does this nocturnal surgeon draw the blood, that instead 

 of being roused, the patient is lulled into a still pro- 

 founder sleep. There are two species of vampire in 

 Demerara, and both suck living animals : one is rather 

 larger than the common bat ; the other measures above 

 two feet from wing to wing extended. 



Snakes are frequently met with in the woods betwixt Snakes, 

 the sea-coast and the rock Saba, chiefly near the creeks, 

 and on the banks of the river. They are large, beautiful, 

 and formidable. The rattlesnake seems partial to a tract 

 of ground known by the name of Canal No. 3 ; there 

 the effects of liis poison will be long remembered. 



The Camoudi snake has been killed from thirty to 

 forty feet long ; though not venomous, his size renders 

 him destructive to the passing animals. The Spaniards 

 in the Oroonoque positively affirm that he grows to the 



c 2 



