288 ' WANDERINGS IN 



Fourth all the attractions. I examined it minutely as lie was 



Journey. 



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 gene- 

 rally 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 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. 



Its 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 instru- 

 ments,) 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. 



