302 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
They cause great destruction at times among 
fowls, which are allowed to roost in the open air, 
sucking them in the head and drawing so much 
blood as sometimes to cause their death in three 
or four blood-lettings. I had a hen which I was 
obliged to kill on this account. 
In the fort they were exceedingly abundant. A 
soldier called at my house at 6 one morning and 
showed me his feet, so completely covered with 
wounds and fresh blood that at first I thought 
he must have fallen into a bed of prickly palms. 
The wounds were all bites of vampires, and in one 
great toe there were no fewer than eight holes. 
The toes, heels, and ankles had been the worst used. 
My Uaupe Indian was quite naked with the 
exception of the tanga when he entered my service. 
I gave him cloth to make a shirt and trousers. His 
companion was the tailor, and when the trousers 
were completed I was present at the ceremony of 
trying them on. You have seen a child in Eng- 
land don his first buttoned clothes, what mixture 
of uneasiness and self-satisfaction he displays, and 
how awkwardly he steps out, and how he twists 
his neck in the vain attempt to obtain a view of 
the remotest back-settlements (reminding one more 
of a turkey cock than of anything else). Fancy 
all these movements exaggerated in a stout young 
man of twenty, with an ingenuous countenance, 
and you will have an idea of the figure Ignacio cut 
on this occasion. I was highly amused, but for- 
bore laughing for fear of hurting the poor fellow's 
feelings. 
One of the commonest weeds in Sao Gabriel 
