AROUND SAO GABRIEL 301 
a lover of cats, and sagacious dames have at divers 
times foretold of me that for that reason I should 
die a bachelor, which, if I live not to get married, 
is likely enough to come true. 
On the granite rocks near my house the sheep 
belonging to the inhabitants often pass the night, 
and in the morning regularly leave behind them 
pools of blood from the bites of the vampires. 
This vampire is a small species with the mem- 
brane connecting the ears very narrow. A leaf- 
nosed bat in my house at the Barra was nearly 
thrice the size, the ears very large and the connect- 
ing membrane very broad. 
As I wear stockings of a night, wrap myself 
well in my blanket, and often cover my face with 
a handkerchief, I have hitherto escaped being 
bitten, but they often come to my hammock in 
search of a vulnerable point. The best preventive 
against them is to keep a lamp burning all night, 
but oil is unfortunately a very scarce article here. 
Surgeons boast of their painless operations nowa- 
days, but the vampire beats them all. I have never 
yet met with a person who was awakened by a 
vampire biting him, but several have had the 
vampire fasten on them when awake, and these 
confirm the account of the animal fanning with his 
wings whilst sucking. The wound is a round piece 
of the skin (often the whole thickness and with 
some flesh besides, as once happened to myself) 
taken completely out as if cut out with a knife. 
The quantity of blood lost is generally trifling 
unless the vampire happens to light on the small 
veins. It prefers the toe-ends, and next to them 
the finger-ends or nose-end. 
